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Income Support - Review of Benefit Levels - Approved Panel Minutes - 15 May 2006

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Social Affairs Scrutiny Panel Income Support Sub-Panel

Meeting 5

Date: 15th May 2006

Location: Le Capelain Room, States Building

 

Present

Deputy J.A. Martin, Chairman Senator B.E. Shenton

Deputy G.P. Southern

Deputy S. Pitman, Vice Chairman

Apologies

 

Absent

 

In attendance

Mr. C. Ahier , Scrutiny Officer

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

 

1. Minutes of Previous Meetings

The Sub-Panel approved the minutes of the meeting of the 24th April subject to the following amendments:

Page 4 Mrs. Breen commented upon the Allowed Homecare allowance'. This should be amended to Home Responsibility Protection'.

The Sub-Panel approved the minutes of the meeting of the 2nd May.

 

[02/05/06 Item 1 iii]

2. Action Updates

The Sub-Panel noted the Action Updates.

Responses in respect of dental care, childcare and long term health care were distributed and noted.

The Sub-Panel discussed the long term care review and the Guernsey model of Social Insurance. It was agreed to look more closely at the Guernsey model.

The Sub-Panel discussed the Citizen's Fund and considered the use of discretion and the resulting possibility of inconsistency in dealing with claimants. The Sub-Panel agreed to establish whether a definitive list of areas covered by the Citizen's Fund had been compiled yet and whether this list included everything that was currently covered by Welfare. The Panel also discussed whether payments were likely to be in the form of loans or grants and how repayment, where applicable, would be arranged.

The Panel considered the previous request for information to the Housing Department and agreed to modify the request to reflect

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the following:

  1. how many single people under 65 years of age have at least £9,000 savings
  2. how many married people under 65 years of age have at least £15,000 savings
  3. how many single people aged 65 or over have at least £15,000 savings
  4. how many married people aged 65 or over have at least £25,000 savings

The Sub-Panel discussed the implications of reducing the number of years residency necessary to claim entitlement to Rent Rebate under the new proposals. The Sub-Panel agreed to request the following data from the Census data held by the Statistics Unit:

i)  how many people will have between 5 and 13 years residency when the new proposals come into force?

The Sub-Panel reiterated their intention to test the new proposals with model case studies once more information was available.

The Sub-Panel discussed the forthcoming meeting with the Minister for Social Security and agreed to ask the Minister for an agenda prior to the meeting taking place. The Sub-Panel further agreed to raise the following issues at the meeting:

  1. How will Transport allowances be incorporated under the new proposals
  2. When will the acceptable list of courses for funding parents wishing to retrain be drawn up; and
  3. How will cosmetic dentistry be defined

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3. Adviser

The Panel considered the requirements for an adviser and agreed to cross reference these requirements against the biographies of the shortlisted advisers.

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4. Future Meetings

The Sub-Panel noted that they were due to meet with the Minister for Social Security on Friday 19th May at 9:30am, Social Security Department.

The Sub-Panel also noted that the next scheduled meeting would take place at 2:00pm on Tuesday 30th May in the Le Capelain Room, States Building.

Deputy Southern offered his apologies for the next meeting.