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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 24th MARCH 2009
Question
Will the Minister inform members when he will be bringing his proposals for the funding of residential care for the elderly under Income Support to the Assembly and will he assure members that these proposals, already postponed from the 2008 Income Support scheme, will not be further delayed awaiting the investigation and assessment of a wider insurance-based residential care scheme?
Answer
The funding of residential care costs for income support claimants is currently covered by the Income Support Transitional Provisions Order.
Since February 2008 all new applications for assistance with residential care costs have been processed by the Social Security Department. During 2008 a standardised placement process for residential care was introduced and fee rates were agreed with local providers. These measures have already led to a much greater consistency in the funding of residential care costs.
I will shortly be issuing Income Support Policy Guidelines which will include a section covering the administration of requests for residential care funding.
It is true that if the Department were not working on a proposal for long term care funding that the residential care regulations could be brought to the States at an earlier date. However, the Department has acknowledged the recommendations of the HSSH Scrutiny Panel Report on Long Term Care which emphasised the importance and urgency of introducing a system of long term care funding. For this reason, the green paper on Long Term Care has been scheduled in advance of the residential care regulations within the 2009 Business Plan.
The 2009 Business Plan for my Department includes the following commitments:
"Introduce Residential Care regulations within Income Support Scheme" with a target date of December 2009.
"In conjunction with New Directions, undertake public consultation on long term care scheme and gain political approval for outline scheme" with a target date of June 2009 to publish a green paper.
As with all Business Plan commitments, the intention is to maintain the proposed timetable.
My Department has taken on a considerable amount of extra work in the first three months of 2009, as an inevitable consequence of the difficulties in the global economy. This may have an impact on a number of commitments made within the Business Plan and it is not possible, at this stage, to identify the full extent of any specific slippage.