'No cash' States to vote on help for poor with no cash

P&R is heading for a showdown with Employment & Social Security in the States this week by opposing proposals for an interim increase of 2.9% to a range of social benefits between July and December.

Pension rates were last increased in January, when they went up 7%. ESS has said it would be ‘morally indefensible’ to maintain those rates until the start of next year with inflation running at 8.5%.

‘95% of people are suffering because of high inflation,’ said Deputy Ferbrache.

‘You’re saying to a 35-year-old taxpayer that you’ve got to pay extra money for these extra benefits – that’s what it will come down to because that money will have to be replaced – when that person didn’t have a 7% pay rise last year and hasn’t got a 7% pay rise this year, and is also the victim of inflation because he or she is educating their children, feeding their children, paying their rent, paying their mortgage. That’s the difficulty.’

If deputies approve the proposals from ESS, the full States pension will go up by £7.26 to £257.48 a week from 3 July until 31 December. This would cost about £2.25m., funded from the Guernsey Insurance Fund, which collects social insurance contributions.

Deputy Ferbrache said that more than half of pensioners had other sources of income greater than their old age pension and nearly one in five Guernsey OAPs now lived outside the island.

‘Of course there are pensioners in need of money... but there are other benefits which could be attributed to them to help them,’ he said.

P&R is also opposing an ESS proposal for a mid-year increase of 2.9% to income support, which provides targeted financial assistance to the least well-off, including pensioners. This move would cost States general revenue an additional £320,000 this year.

In the latest Guernsey Press politics podcast, ESS member Steve Falla said he knew from his sister, who runs the Guernsey Welfare food bank, that more people were suffering financially.

‘The people ESS are dealing with by and large are facing severe hardship. Nobody wants to be on benefits. There are people who are desperate to look after themselves. Right now, people need help,’ said Deputy Falla.

Deputy Ferbrache revealed that his committee considered submitting an amendment to restrict the mid-year increase to income support recipients and no-one else.

‘We certainly thought about that. But we thought this was a matter which must be presented to the States and the States can decide these issues,’ he said.

ESS vice-president Deputy Lindsay de Saumarez said that unreasonable hardship would be prolonged if her committee’s proposals were defeated.

‘This is not a theoretical numbers game. This is real people’s lives, real households, real families, real individuals very much having to deal with the day-to-day reality of hardship presented to them by very unusually high levels of inflation... they have not got sufficient funds to access the goods and services they so desperately need,’ she said.

Deputy Ferbrache predicted the Assembly would reject P&R’s advice and instead approve ESS’s proposed mid-year increases with the votes of some deputies who recently took part in public demonstrations against tax rises recommended by P&R.

‘I think it will be passed. People who marched in Church Square and sang Sweet Caroline will say “yes, we’ve got to do it”, but we’re going to have to face the consequences soon of doing these things,’ said Deputy Ferbrache.