It has set out the plans in its new four-year work plan, which was published last week, as it comes under pressure to cut spending against a deteriorating backdrop for the island’s public finances.
The committee said it has established a savings working party that ‘has been turning stones and actively looking for opportunities to make savings’, and that more than 30 areas had been identified for further investigation.
Among them is family allowance – the £18.40 weekly benefit currently paid in respect of each child. Previously a universal payment, it switched to being means-tested in 2022 in a bid for savings.
The committee said it would review family allowance and wider benefit eligibility criteria ‘in line with directions from the States and wider public service savings requirements’, and explore whether changes to family allowance arrangements could help free up resources for reinvestment in services and support for children and families.
Care costs are also set to rise for some. Under reforms to the long-term care insurance scheme agreed last year, the committee is set to bring in a phased increase in the contributions made by care recipients ‘to reflect the real cost of accommodation and living in a private care home’, along with a new ‘user care cost contribution for those who can afford it’. The changes amount to a greater degree of means-testing, with wealthier residents asked to pay more towards their care.
It is also looking to expand long-term care in the community and how to fund it, which could consider basing support on the individual’s contribution record rather than being based on residency.
A report on that issue should be with the States by this time next year.
As she prepared to face a Scrutiny hearing tomorrow, committee president Deputy Tina Bury acknowledged that it had struggled to narrow its priorities, and she has also lost two committee members in the past few months who have been critical of what they perceived as a lack of appetite within the committee to push hard for savings.
‘Given how broad and varied our mandate is, narrowing our priorities down was not an easy task and, in all honesty, we have not achieved this to the level that we would like,’ she said.
She blamed ‘limited officer resource, funding constraints, and the absence of an established prioritisation system’.
‘I’m sure it’s widely recognised that there is an ongoing tension between ambition and deliverability across government.
‘While we are under no illusions about the scale of the programme of work, we are determined to make meaningful progress against our priorities this term, which are underpinned by the committee’s commitment to fairness, inclusion and sustainability in the design and delivery of public services and support.”
Deputy Bury said the committee had a ‘responsibility to reduce spending while ensuring changes do not unfairly affect islanders who need support’, and that the savings work included ‘invest-to-save’ measures and efficiencies as well as cuts.
The committee stressed that its work to find savings was being done with care to protect ‘those who are most vulnerable’ and to minimise unintended consequences.
Any proposals it would bring forward would need States approval before taking effect.
The proposals sit alongside a broad programme of work set out in the plan, from new workplace rights and equality legislation to reform of social security contributions – but much of it, the committee cautions, was dependent on resources and unlikely to be delivered in full within the current political term.
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