THE Island's Social Care Minister has pledged to shake up the benefits system and put an end to universality.

Chris Robertshaw MHK has said his department cannot continue with past policies which are "very generous and poorly targeted".

It was revealed earlier this week that the Department of Social Care's budget for 2012/2013 would be increased by 4.9 per cent to £142,947,000.

Laying out his department's priorities for the coming year Mr Robertshaw said reforms were required in the area of social security in order to save taxpayers £3m annually.

The Minister said: "I believe now is the time to cease universal benefits which are paid to all regardless of their means.

"I am committed to ensuring the benefits system gives clear incentives to work to those who are able to do so – this is good for them, our economy and the taxpayer."

The largest universal benefit paid by the department is child benefit which is paid to around 10,000 families and which costs more than £19m a year. This will be amended to bring it more into line with UK policy.

Child benefit for the first child in a family will remain unchanged at £20.40 per week but the rate for the second, and subsequent, child will be reduced to £13.50.

Parents who have children aged between 16 and 19 who are in full time education will see their £30 a week benefit withdrawn and instead replaced with the standard child benefit rate. This will affect around 1,560 families.

Families on the lowest income will see no reduction in overall income as their other benefits will make up the difference.

Mr Robertshaw explained: "Child benefit is not and never was introduced to cover the full cost of raising children but is simply a contribution towards that cost.
 
"I cannot defend paying millions of pounds of scarce public resources to the well-off who do not need child benefit. Therefore I will bring forward proposals that will ensure child benefit is focused toward those families most in need.

"This is a particularly difficult decision but I believe it is a necessary step if we are to ensure support is directed to those in real need and the burden on the taxpayer is to be addressed."

It is believed that the child benefit reforms will deliver an annual saving of around £2.5 million.

The Department of Social Care is also reducing the amount of money paid in benefits to unemployed people under the age of 25.
 
Currently people under the age of 17 can receive 120 per cent of the income they would earn working full time on the minimum wage.

For a person aged between 18 and 24 this figure is over 90 per cent. They receive £95.65 per week in personal allowance and another £116 per week if they live independently.

 
Mr Robertshaw continued: "I am very concerned that this can remove their incentive to seek work leaving them trapped on benefits."
 
From April this benefit will be reduced by £17.25 per week – although this will not affect young people living in residential care, accommodation or board and lodging establishments.
 
It is believed that this reform will affect around 500 young people but deliver an annual saving of £500,000.
 
Income related benefits (income support, employed person's allowance and income based jobseeker's allowance) will be increased by 2.5 per cent - broadly in line with the earnings of workers whose taxes fund those benefits.

There will be no change in the amount of money paid in disability benefits but new measures are being introduced to monitor the system.

Mr Robertshaw added: "We will be introducing measures to ensure those in receipt of long-term sickness benefits are regularly assessed to ascertain whether them remain incapable of work and then we will help those who can undertake some work to do so."

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