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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BY DEPUTY P.V.F. LE CLAIRE OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 10th OCTOBER 2006
Question
Would the Minister inform members –
- whether a system is in place in theSocial Security Departmentto keep a record of the numberofSocial Security cardsissuedby nationality and, ifso,what the statistics by nationality are?
- whether these records can be interpreted to demonstrate the numbersof individuals currently in Jersey in order to ascertain the demographics for immigration analysis andactivecard use orownership?
- whether anycross-records are kept with visits to doctors and ITIS payments and, if not, whetheritwouldbe possible for such a records system to beimplementedinorderto assist in identifyingwhois working where and how many people are paying their Social Security contributions?
Answer
- The Social Security system collects information for Social Security purposes not for demographic or immigration purposes.Manyindividuals,whilsthaving a singleSocial Security number, will have hadissued to them more than one card.TheDepartmenthastoissuereplacements cards andpeople with two or three jobs need two or three cards which inevitably reduces the value and use of this statistic. However, the Departmentdoes register individuals who have foundemployment in the Island and records the nationality of that individual against a unique social security number. From this information the Departmentcan analyse the nationalities of those individuals who are newly registered andthosewho have paid contributions.
NEW REGISTRANTS
B r it is h (includes Jersey) 5 0 5 3 5 1 9 0
P o li s h 1 2 4 8 1 7 2 1
P o rt u guese 4 5 7 5 1 6
F re n c h 3 1 3 2 9 2 Ir is h 2 1 3 1 9 9
G e r m an 7 5 1 8 7
O v e r all Total 8 6 1 0 8 9 4 6
TOTAL NUMBER OF CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SCHEDULE RETURNS (This is not individuals, but the number of contributions)
A 2004 B 2004 C 2004 D 2004 A 2005 B 2005 C 2005 D 2005 A 2006 Polish 1577 2532 2962 2761 2564 3598 3889 3762 3413 Portuguese 6720 7286 7150 6869 6469 7050 6923 7152 6492 British 37152 37460 38399 36786 36141 37475 38582 37755 36623 Total 52841 54880 56254 53920 52321 55696 56928 56121 53396
- The simple answer is no, for a number of reasons. The information is accurate for Social Security purposes but not for demographic purposes. For example it will include people who have recently left Jersey and not include those who do not have to register with the Social Security Department, such as detached workers and those not liable to pay Social Security contributions. Currently the computer holds about 400,000 individual
records of which about a quarter are active. The Department is currently co-operating with the Population Office
and the Statistics Unit to develop the information necessary to monitor the labour market and the population from a number of sources.
- There is no link to ITIS payments,doctors visits and wherepeople are workingandpaying contributions. Not all people visiting the doctororindeed pay contributions actually pay tax. TheSocial Security systemknows who is paying contributionsandwhere they are workingor have worked.TheDepartmentdoes not know who might notbe contributing illegally, butevidencesuggests that compliance is good across both employed and self-employed sectors andnoevidence exists to suggest extensive evasion ofcontributionpayments.