One in five families paying back overpayments

Scrutiny says a main reason for overpayments were caused by errors by customer and local services

A scrutiny panel has found one in five households in Jersey on income support were having to pay back overpayments from the government.

The review, which began in June, found 45 key findings and made 26 recommendations.

It found the main reasons for the overpayments were caused by errors by customer and local services (CLS), and by failures to notify the service of a change of circumstances.

The panel recommended the social security minister to undertake a review of the current guidelines "to ensure that repayment plans are not causing financial hardship and leaving individuals or families financially vulnerable".

The Social Security Minister Deputy Elaine Millar said she would respond to the findings and recommendations "in the coming weeks".

Findings raised concerns about the wellbeing of people who were making repayments, noting some were in rent arrears and were having to decide between buying food, medication or accessing a foodbank.

Deputy Rob Ward, scrutiny panel leader, said is was not acceptable for income support to tell people to rely on charity.

He said: "People are being signposted to charities and food banks, this is an income support system and we're not talking about vast amounts of money for individuals, we're talking about maintaining a basic standard of living.

"If we're then having to send people to food banks and charities, there's something fundamentally flawed in the system that we have."

Richard Nunn from the Salvation Army said making repayments could be a huge burden.

He said: "You can accrue thousands of pounds of overpayments really quickly here, and then when you're taking 20, 30 pounds per week from someone, that takes a long time to pay back,

"It's almost demoralising from the start as soon as you realise you've got pay it back, you almost can't see an end check because you're talking years to repay it."

'Lack of empathy'

Recommendations from the panel included not recovering overpayments made at the error of the CLS department, and for income support staff to undergo mandatory training on learning difficulties, trauma informed practice and unconscious bias due to reports of staff having "a lack of empathy".

"The extent of this impact on people's lives and health cannot be underestimated, and as such I hope that all of the panel’s findings and recommendations are seen as constructive comments on how to improve a system that so many rely upon for support," Mr Ward said.

Ms Millar said making payments in advance often led to "temporary overpayments".

She said: "Income support payments are made in advance, so low-income families are supported quickly when their circumstances require it.

"I will review these findings and recommendations carefully and publish my formal response in the coming weeks.”