The official version of this document can be found via the PDF button.
The below content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments.
11
1240/5(9615)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER 2016
Question
Given that the Fiscal Policy Panel's latest annual report, published in August 2016, revised central economic assumptions downwards with, in particular, employment growth estimated as 0% across 2017 to 2019, would the Minister advise what impact, if any, these revised forecasts might have on the delivery of efficiency savings on Return to Work schemes, explaining the rationale for the anticipated savings, and if there will be no impact, would the Minister explain why not?
Answer
As detailed in the Draft Medium Term Financial Plan I remain confident that my department will achieve the staff and administrative savings of £3.5m, and a reduction of 22.5 FTE by 2019, by increasing productivity and reducing costs. Savings will be invested in the vital areas of health and education as a contribution towards the overall aims of the Medium Term Financial Plan
Social Security will continue helping people into employment through our Back to Work schemes, and rolling out services to extra groups who may experience additional barriers to work, to support the Council of Ministers' Strategic Priorities. The ongoing future investment into Back to Work will depend on progress against these priorities, the success of lowering mainstream unemployment, and economic conditions. Our expectations are that unemployment will be lower by 2019. It is anticipated that the total expenditure on Back to Work programmes will have reduced by circa £2m per year by 2019.
The department will continue using LEAN methodology to make efficiency and service improvements. The benefits of this are twofold in improving the service that we deliver to our customers and also generating extra internal operational capacity. This can be converted into savings, for example, by not replacing staff who leave. These efficiencies are expected to facilitate a decrease in the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees over the period across the department.