Letter from the Minister for Social Security to the HSS Panel re the Government Plan 2023-26 Review

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 4WE

1st November 2022 Sent by e-mail

Dear Deputy Southern ,

Thank you for your letter dated 24th October 2022. Please find below responses to each question in turn:

Additional Revenue Expenditure

Beresford Street Kitchen I-CLS-GP23-001

1. Please provide a breakdown as to how the funding will be spent.

The grant will contribute to the expenses in the BSK enterprises not currently covered by traded income. BSK are currently projecting a 25% increase in traded income to £510,000. The expenses for the enterprises including cost of sales, people costs, share of operating costs, is projected to be approx. £820,000. The grant is part of a phased approach to sustainability through the development of a 5-year business plan.

2. How many people currently access the programmes that Beresford Street Kitchen offers?

There are currently 50 crew on workplace training and employment programmes, and 15 new crew will start in 2023 with 5 starting the Discover Induction Programme in January, May and September.

Women's Refuge I-CLS-GP23-002

3. How many people accessed Women's Refuge last year and how many are currently accessing the service this year?

In 2021 there were a total of 332 Women and Children were supported by Jersey Women's Refuge. 292 Women and 40 Children.

Currently Jersey Women's Refuge have 60 people open to support, including:

• 6 children and 7 women residing at Jersey Women's Refuge

• 7 women supported through IRIS (Identification and Referral to Improve Safety)

• 2 women supported through counselling

• 5 women supported through group work

• 33 women support through outreach

Draft data for 2022 provides the following overview of the number of people accessing Jersey Women's Refuge:

• 204 women (across all services except helpline)

• 148 women through helpline (identified as one-off callers)

• 32 children (through safe house service)

4. Funding for Women's Refuge is being proposed for every year of this Government Plan. How long do you intend to continue funding this provision?

Jersey Women's Refuge provide essential service's to support Women and Children who are victims of domestic violence. This includes a Safe House as well as education and outreach support. We are committed to continuing our support for Jersey Women's Refuge for the foreseeable future and will continue to work in collaboration with them.

5. What discussions took place with the Women's Refuge regarding the amount of funding required to facilitate the continued provision of shelters suitable for families?

There has been partnership working to develop a new specification as well as discussing funding since early 2022 with regular meetings taking place between officers and Jersey Women's Refuge. This included discussions around reserve funds, investment portfolios as well as an increase in the proposed grant for 2023 from £256k in 2022 to £300k in 2023.

a)  Did Women's Refuge believe this level of funding was sufficient, in light of the increased demand for the service?

While Jersey Women's Refuge would have liked to have received 50% of their overarching budget from their Government of Jersey Grant, it is the case that they do have considerable reserves as well as receiving funding from other sources. We will monitor their budget position as well as demand for their services on an annual basis to ensure that these key services are funded.

Old Persons Living Forum – I-CLS-GP23-003

6. Please provide a breakdown of how you expect the proposed funding to be spent.

This funding is required to implement Action 4 of the Council of Ministers' 100 Day Plan to ensure that older people are being listened to and heard. The Older Persons Living Forum will make sure that the older community are included in Government decision making. Members of the Forum will provide their views to ministers and policy makers directly, ensuring that their views are considered throughout the process of designing Government policy.

The funding proposed under the Government Plan will cover the costs of administering the Forum each year, including:

• Venue hire and refreshments for participants;

• Secretariat functions;

• Provision of access to Forum meetings, including transport services for participants.

100 Day Plan – Period Products I-CLS-GP23-004

7. Please provide a breakdown of how you expect the proposed funding to be spent.

Given the demand-led nature of this service, accurately estimating exact costs of this scheme is challenging. The estimated costs are broadly broken down as follows c.£300,000 on products, c.£50,000 on ongoing-administrative costs and c.£150,000 on set-up costs.

Initial estimates were based on modelling used by the Scott ish Government, who have recently introduced legislation regarding access to free period products.

Costings will be further refined using the information gathered from the current pilot scheme and feedback from the public consultation both of which will provide a clearer picture of levels of demand and product and delivery preferences.

100 Day Plan – Cost of Living Support I-CLS-GP23-005

8. Please provide a breakdown of the proposed funding for this project.

A budget of up to £400,000 has been allocated to this project. The details of the scheme will be announced before the end of 2022.

9. How many families will benefit from this targeted support?

The scheme will be aimed at eligible households where the adults hold registered status and there are children included in the household. The full details of the scheme will be announced before the end of 2022.

States Funds Long-Term Care Fund

10. In last year's Government Plan, it was estimated that the balance of the Long-Term Care Fund would be £51,049,000 at the beginning of 2023. Can you please explain why the estimate in this year's Government Plan for 2023 is lower at £46,338,000?

The 2023-26 Government Plan uses a lower opening balance on the LTCF in 2023. The primary reason for this is an increase in benefit expenditure from the Fund during 2022 – since the GP22- 25 was produced, the number of individuals receiving LTC benefits has increased. Specifically, there are more people in residential care home placements. This means that the forecast benefits expenditure for 2022 is expected to exceed the £58m that was forecast for "benefits and other expenditure" in the 2022-25 Plan. This results in a decreased closing balance on the fund at the end of 2022 and therefore a lower opening balance in 2023.

Income to the fund has decreased slightly in 2022 due to a drop in the States grant to the Fund from an estimated £31.8m in GP22-25 to the actual figure of £31.2m. By law this grant is calculated using the published March RPI of the previous year (therefore the March 2021 RPI of 0.8%).

11. In the Government Plan 2022-2025, it was advised that due to the combination of demographic pressures, funding of Covid-19 related health schemes, the proposed transfers to support the Jersey Care Model and Health Digital Strategy and the funding of the new financially vulnerable access scheme the HIF would be holding £47.5m at the end of 2025 – representing approximately one years' worth of expenditure. Why does this year's Government Plan estimate that at the end of 2025 the fund will have a balance of £75m?

2022 contributions income is higher than forecast in the GP22-25. This is partly due to the increase in the 2022 Average Earnings Index (AEI) and the projected AEI for 2023-25 as estimated by the Fiscal Policy Panel.

Forecast HIF benefit expenditure has also decreased slightly following a review based on actual activity in the first half of 2022.

12. Please can you confirm whether the funds that were taken out of the Health Insurance Fund to help pay for Covid-19 has now been repaid back into the Fund.

The Health Insurance Fund supported the cost of two projects within primary care during Covid- 19. The contracts were operated through the HCS department but related fully to the provision of primary healthcare services by GPs. The amounts have not been repaid and, in accordance with P45/2020, which was approved by the assembly, there is no requirement to repay these costs to the Fund.

13. Was any consideration given to increasing the rebate from the Health Insurance Fund during discussions of this Government Plan, given the current cost of living crisis, or to any short-term support whilst wider reviews of health care funding are taking place?

Affordable access to primary care is an issue for the Primary Care Strategy which will be developed by the Minister for Health and Social Services.

The "rebate" referred to is the Medical Benefit available under the HIL. This is a universal benefit which does not take into account a person's income and therefore adjusting the rate of this benefit would be poorly targeted in comparison to other measures in the Mini-budget.

It should also be noted that the co-payment cost of General Practice services for people who are members  of  the  Health  Access  Scheme  has  not  been  increased  since  the  scheme  was introduced in December 2020. Irrespective of RPI and cost of living pressures, people in receipt of Pension Plus benefit and all members of Income Support households continue to pay £12 for a GP consultation, £9 for a Nurse and there is no charge for children aged 16 or under who are members of the Health Access Scheme.

14. The Social Security Department used to produce annual reports and statements detailing how the money from the Health Insurance Fund was spent. We believe the latest of these reports was produced in 2017. Please can you provide a breakdown of how the funds from the HIF have been spend each year from 2017?

Data is published through the States of Jersey Report and Accounts each year. Data is also available on the open data  website – see  Health Insurance Fund Statistics  -  Datasets - Government of Jersey Open Data

Social Security Fund

15. Please explain why the estimated opening balance for 2023 is £72,664,000, given that last year's Government Plan estimated that the opening balance in 2023 would stand at £87,761,000.

The Social Security Fund is also affected by the increase in 2022 contributions income (see Q11 above) compared to the GP22-25. However, this is offset by the projected decrease in income from reducing the primary rate of contributions to 4% for Oct-Dec 2022.

The transfer from the Social Security Reserve to the Social Security Fund was estimated at £81.2m for 2022 in the GP22-25, however the actual transfer is £78.5m, resulting in a further reduction in the Fund's 2022 income.

2022 forecast expenditure has also increased due to the 7.7% OAP rate uplift as of October 2022.

The reduced opening balance in 2023 is due to a combination of the reduced income and increased expenditure in the latter part of 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy Elaine Millar Minister for Social Security