Benefit cuts “harsher than anything in the UK” – Deputy

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Benefit cuts and new charges being planned in Jersey are harsher than anything proposed by George Osborne in the UK and will leave single parents £2,500 worse off per year, says Deputy Geoff Southern.

He says that the proposals – part of a package of measures designed to fill a £145 million black hole looming in public finances – will push some households into “severe hardship”.

The Deputy – a member of political party Reform Jersey – says that the States should have waited until the end of the year to see data on how different levels of society are coping financially before making the decisions.

He has released figures that he says shows:

- Lone parents will be worse off by £2,500 per year.

- New pensioners will lose £1,000 per year.

- Families with children will lose at least £600.

- All Income Support households will lose up to £450.

Deputy Southern said that because they didn’t wait for the Income Distribution Survey at the end of the year, politicians have agreed changes without fully understanding the impact that they will have.

He said: “When asked in the States to delay the implementation of these savage cuts pending the publication of the latest Income Distribution Survey at the end of this year, the Minister refused.

“But the minister has no idea what the impact will be on these families, and how many will fall below the relative low income threshold and into poverty. In the absence of this research her actions are reckless in the extreme.

“By the end of 2016, these families will be £759 worse off, and when the new health and sewage charges are added in, this will leave the poorest households £2,500 worse off than they are today.

“This will push many of these families into severe hardship.”