Therefore, any ‘surplus’ needs to be paid back to the department and this year alone, the total clawed back is approximately £2,547,000.
The figure emerged in the Social Security Minister’s response to a written question from Deputy Rob Ward about repaying income support overpayments.
Pictured: The figure emerged as part of a written question tabled at the last States’ meeting of the year.
Income support is a benefit scheme which offers low income families advance payments to help them afford to live in times of hardship.
Deputy Ward asked: “How much money was recovered monthly over the last year from Social Security of Income Support claimants through the repayment of overpayments made by the Minister’s department[?]”
In her response, Deputy Judy Martin suggested that the system of making payments in advance creates the need for “adjustments” after that payment is made – which results in overpayments from the Department needing to be repaid by the income support claimants.
She stated: “The income support scheme provides payments in advance to low income families. This ensures that vulnerable households are not left without funds to support their basic needs immediately following a drop in income.
“A system that makes payments in advance will always require adjustments where household income has increased after a payment has been made.”
The Minister then gives a month-by-month breakdown of how many overpayments have been clawed back by the department so far in 2019.
Pictured: The monthly breakdown of benefits overpaid and clawed back from those on Income Support.
It indicates repayments of between £178,000 and £360,000 per month from January until November.
Deputy Ward also asked about the number of households that are currently repaying overpaid benefits, to which the Minister stated: “1,172 IS [Income Support] household claims are currently being adjusted for overpayments.”