Number of Income Support claimants (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 21 October 2022.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request 

Please confirm the following: 

A

The number of people each year from 2012 to 2021 inclusive who received income support.

B

The total amount of income support that was paid out each year from 2012 to 2021 inclusive.

Response 

The information for the years 2012 to 2020 is available on opendata.gov.je. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

A

Income Support Statistics - Income Support Claims - Government of Jersey Open Data (opendata.gov.je)

B 

Income Support Statistics - Income Support Annual Expenditure - Government of Jersey Open Data (opendata.gov.je)

The data for 2021 is not currently available but will be added to opendata.gov.je in November 2022. Article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Articles applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 36 - Information intended for future publication 

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant –

(a) of the date when the information will be published;

(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and

(c) by whom it will be published.

(3) In this Article, "published" means published –

(a) by a public authority; or

(b) by any other person.

Public Interest Test

Article 36 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test has to be undertaken to examine the circumstances of the case and decide whether, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

• It is intended to publish all data relating to income support received and amounts paid by 30 November 2022 which is within the 12 weeks permitted under Article 36.