‘Income support told me I don’t need to get a job’
BBC
When single mum Lydia Pang was told she did not need to get a job until her daughter turned three, she was shocked. It left her wondering whether the <a People do want to work," said the 26-year-old.
“It’s not that we’re a society having children and then [wanting] to stay at home. We do want to work, but it’s hard to find that support.”
Pang lives in a bedsit, run by an emergency housing charity, and works two jobs to send her two-year-old to nursery where she can mix with children her age.
She said an encounter with an officer at Guernsey’s Committee for Employment and Social Security (ESS) made her question the system.
“Income support told me I don’t need to get a job until my daughter is three and then I only need to work 15 hours a week,” she said.
“I think we should encourage people for their mental health, their fitness. I think we should encourage people to go to work and help them with childcare if that’s what’s needed.”
‘Majority are working’
ESS President Tina Bury rejected suggestions the benefits system discourages work, arguing the income support system was designed to make employment worthwhile.
“I would encourage any parent in receipt of income support who feels they have been discouraged from working to contact me and I will discuss this with officers,” she said.
<a s benefits system was designed to encourage people into work.
“The default is you will maximise your earnings and then the system will top you up as much as required, until the point where you’re earning more than the system would give you.
“There are <a If you look at everybody on income support of working age, the majority are working."
Currently Guernsey’s States offers 15 hours of free pre-school education for children in the year before they go to school.
