Job leavers to lose benefits

Islanders in Jersey who leave their jobs early and without a valid reason may be forced to wait before claiming benefits.

That's according to Social Security Minister Francis Le Gresley, who says he's committed to tackling unemployment.

In Jersey, there are currently 1,840 people in need of a job.

The minister is launching a three-pronged attack to get them back to work.


That will include:

*Tighter controls on work licences to prevent foreigners being employed in jobs that locals can do.

*Various back-to-work schemes such as the Hospitality Scheme to encourage locals to work in that industry.

*Making it more difficult for newly unemployed islanders to claim income support.

Francis Le Gresley says helping the work-shy to get jobs is a priority.

He said, "This is very much about putting something into legislation that enables us to take some action if someone walks out of a job without just cause and comes onto the benefit system.

"Very few people would be affected by this because virtually all of those who are looking for work are actively seeking work and definitely want to be back in the workplace, but we do have to deal with the odd person who doesn't want to work and we have to have something in place to deal with that situation."

Deputy Geoff Southern is speaking out against the tighter benefit controls. He said, "I think it's positively draconian and completely the wrong direction to take. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest there are large numbers of people who are complete skivers.

"My experience is of those 1,800 people the vast majority want to get back into work. But the minimum wage in Jersey is quite frankly too low.

"When you look at the figures, the difference between being on income support alone and working whilst getting some income support is about £40 a week better off, so that equates to working for £1 an hour if you work full time on the minimum wage."

Malcolm Ferry, head of Jersey's Citizen Advice Bureau said, "To some degree, I agree with these proposals, but they have to be balanced up against individual needs.

"We see clients who are in extremely stressful situations in their employment where the only realistic way they can see of moving on is to leave that employment for a period of time.

"Now some people will say 'why don't they look for a job first before they leave the position that they're currently in' and that's ok until you see the state of some people who are realistically not able to conduct themselves in an interview, some people need that space."

Francis Le Gresley agreed that individuals must be treated on a case-by-case basis: "There will be situations where we quite understand, where the atmosphere in the job has been unacceptable, or there's been bullying or they haven't been able to achieve what was required on probation, all those are good reasons for leaving a job, but to just walk out of a job and assume you can claim benefits is not something that we are going to support."

The tighter controls on income support are being drafted at the moment and will be put to the States to debate in early April.