Changes to Employed Person's Allowance.

Summary

A request for information regarding social impact assessments and specific cost calculations for changes to the Employed Person's Allowance was largely refused because the Treasury does not hold the requested data, though a financial impact assessment overview was provided.

Key Facts

• The Treasury confirmed no Social Impact Assessment was undertaken as defined by the requester.
• A full public consultation was conducted, and the response document is available online.
• Financial impact assessments using various scenarios were used to formulate the policy.
• The Treasury does not hold information on unsupervised child hours or the specific cost of changing the youngest child age limit to 16.
• Raising the age limit would have reduced potential expenditure savings rather than increased costs.

Data Disclosed

• 2019-06-14
• 2019-07-02
• 20 May 2019
• 23 May
• 13
• 16
• 832965
• Section 11(3)(a)
• May 2019
• item 34

Exemptions Cited

• Section 11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Information not held)

Original Request

Please supply me with the following information relating to the proposed changes to Employed Person's Allowance . Has a Social Impact Assessment been carried out to asses what the social impact of the proposed changes will be? Have the department investigated how many hours children will be left unsupervised (for example, before and after school) if parents are required to increase the number of hours they must work to qualify? How much extra money would it cost the department to set the age of the youngest child to 16 rather than the current proposed 13?

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Seyrsnys Fysseree

The Treasury Government Office Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 3PU

Telephone: (01624) 685605 Email: FOI.Treasury@gov.im

Government Website: www.gov.im

Our ref: 832965 2 July 2019

Dear ###,

We write further to your request which was made on 20 May 2019 and which states: “Request –RE Employed Persons Allowance: Please supply me with the following information relating to the proposed changes to Employed Person's Allowance . Has a Social Impact Assessment been carried out to asses (sic) what the social impact of the proposed changes will be? Have the department investigated how many hours children will be left unsupervised (for example, before and after school) if parents are required to increase the number of hours they must work to qualify? How much extra money would it cost the department to set the age of the youngest child to 16 rather than the current proposed 13?” We note that on 14 June 2019, in answer to our request for you to confirm the recorded information you are interested in and in relation to the first part of your request to clarify what you consider to be a 'Social Impact Assessment' you responded: “You asked me to define what I mean by a Social Impact Assesment (sic), here is a definition: A Social Impact Assessment includes the processes of analysing, monitoring and managing the intended and unintended social consequences, both positive and negative, of planned interventions and any social change processes invoked by those interventions.) A social impact analysis can be defined as a piece of research undertaken to analyse the social impact of the proposed changes. If the answer is yes, please provide a copy, including any intended monitoring methods.

If the answer is no, was there any more piece-meal or disparate work undertaken in order to analyse what social impact the changes would have? If yes, please provide copies.” Response Under section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 a public authority (which includes the Treasury) may refuse to give an applicant the information requested if a practical refusal reason applies.
With regard to the first part of your request, a practical refusal reason applies under section 11(3)(a) of the Act as the Treasury does not hold the information you have requested. This is because a social impact assessment (as described by you) has not been undertaken. However, you will be aware from our previous correspondence with you, that a full public consultation on the changes was conducted by Treasury and that consultation, along with the consultation response, entitled 'Proposed Changes to Minimum Work Requirements ' Consultation Response Document', can be found through the following web-link – https://www.gov.im/categories/benefits-and-financial-support/social-security- benefits/employed-persons-allowance/ Furthermore, I can advise that in formulating its policy regarding the changes to the minimum work requirements for Employed Person’s Allowance (EPA) the Treasury had regard to financial impact assessments of the new minimum work requirements using various scenarios. A copy of the financial impact assessments with an “Overview” note is enclosed. With regard to the second and third parts of your request, I can confirm that the Treasury does not hold any information in this regard and therefore a practical refusal reason under Section 11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 also applies. However, and as advised in our email to you of 23 May, in relation to the third part of your request (which clearly relates to the new minimum work requirements for lone parents), I can advise that it would not actually have cost the Treasury any more to have set a higher age limit for the youngest or only child of a lone parent; rather it would have meant that considerably fewer lone parents claiming EPA would be impacted by the changes to the minimum work requirements and consequently the potential reduction in expenditure on EPA would have been less. However, it should be noted that the changes to the minimum work requirements are not simply about saving money; they are about improving outcomes for families, society and the wider economy. It may be of interest to you to refer to the Hansard record of the May 2019 sitting of Tynwald, where a full debate on the changes to the EPA minimum work requirements took place. You will be able to access the Hansard record through the following web- link - http://www.tynwald.org.im/business/hansard/20002020/t190522.pdf (see item 34).

You may also wish to note that over the course of this summer employment advisers at the Jobcentre will be proactively contacting affected customers to offer them one to one meetings, with a view to understanding any needs they may have and help they may need in obtaining additional hours of work. Please quote the reference number 832965 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Brown