Income Support arrangements

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 15th JANUARY 2008

Question

1. H  o w many, and what proportion of, applicants for IncomeSupport(whichcommences on 28th January 2008) hadreceivedtheirassessment letters byMonday7th January 2008 andhow many have received them to date?

Answer

A s of 7th January 2008, 7,309 application forms for Income Support had been received in the

Department. By that date 5,624 claims (77%) had been rated and Award Notices issued to customers. Since then a further 415 application forms have been received bringing the total number of claims to 7,724. As of 13th January 2008 a further 1,256 claims had been rated (89% of all claims received).

Question

2. H  o w many enquiries by telephone, e-mailorinperson have the departmenthadto deal withsince the first letters weresent?

Answer

S in c e the dispatch of Award Notices began, the Department has received 4,674 phone calls and there have

been 3,888 face to face contacts in the Front Office enquiring about Income Support. Email enquiries have been relatively low with 52 customers emailing the Department to enquire about their Income Support claims.

Question

3. W  i ll the Minister undertake to consult with the Plain English Society to ensure that future communications from the department are written inlanguagewhichcanbe clearly understood by recipients?

Answer

A l l s tandard Income Support letters are prepared by the Department in close co-operation with the States

Communications Unit. The Communications Unit has published a comprehensive set of Editorial Guidelines, which have been approved by the Plain English Campaign and have been awarded the Crystal Mark. All standard Income Support letters are produced in line with these guidelines.

A l l le tters are very carefully written to ensure that they provide the correct legal information required by

the claimant. Income Support is a major change to the social benefits system and the department has had very many enquiries about it, but the language used in the letters has not featured as an issue in these enquiries.

O n c e the Income Support scheme is in operation, the emphasis will be on face-to-face interviews between

trained advisers and claimants.

Question

4. W  i llthe Minister clarify whatIncomeSupportarrangements are now in place with eachof the parishes, and in particular what service level agreementshave been signed,andwhen? Will healso assure members that no parish staff will be involved with IncomeSupport administration unlessand until such agreements

have been signed? Answer

D e p a rtmental officers are in daily contact with the 11 parishes that will assist claimants with certain

aspects of their Income Support benefit.

I s h a ll be signing an agreement with the Comité before the implementation of Income Support. This will

cover:

1. Provision ofcashIncomeSupportpaymentsto parishioners
2. Administration of existing residential careclaimants
3. Use ofParish Hall premises for Social Security staff to interview IncomeSupportclaimants
4. Facilities foremergencyandout-of-hourspaymentsby parish officials
5. Provision ofgeneralIncomeSupport information and literature.

T h is agreement will be fully compliant with data protection legislation.