Given that the income support reforms were designed to create a more streamlined and efficient benefit system, those four words are particularly damning and offer a clear challenge to those who administer and defend a system meant to protect the most vulnerable in our community, and to do so in a more effective way by merging and streamlining the various benefits formerly managed by a combination of States and parochial bodies, with a large measure of municipal discretion thrown in.
The hyper-critical Scrutiny report cannot be said to be a wholly independent or objective view and it certainly comes as no surprise. The chairman, Deputy Geoff Southern, is a long-term critic of the scheme whose election manifesto described income support as not well targeted, failing to provide incentives to work or save and leaving pensioners and others in poverty – a fairly similar line to the one taken in his panel’s report.
Be that as it may, the comprehensive report, with 25 ‘key findings’ and 32 recommendations, must be taken seriously.
Even if it was not enough that the 8,500 claims for income support represent a significant proportion of Islanders – and should, therefore, demand a significant proportion of States Members’ attention – the annual budget is £79.7m, which amounts to something in the region of 10% of all public spending.
On that basis alone, it is vital that we know that the system works as its proponents say it does.
There is another reason that Islanders have a right to expect an efficient and effective system. The income support scheme is the product of a decade of work, dating back to the Employment and Social Security Committee. A massive amount of time, effort and money has been invested in getting the system right but, if Deputy Southern’s panel are to be believed, the exercise has been a dismal failure, letting down the very people it was designed to help.
While no system involving such a complex and occasionally emotive matter will ever be perfect, Islanders must have confidence that this hugely important social safeguard actually works displays none of the characteristics listed by Scrutiny.
That is one of the questions to which Social Security Minister Ian Gorst will no doubt now turn his full attention, either rebutting the criticisms or acting swiftly to address them. Another key question, not only for Deputy Gorst but for every States Members, is whether the benefits currently available are adequate, sustainable and effectively targeted.
