'Income support told me I don't need to get a job'

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 benefits system was designed to help people like her, who want a job, or to keep her on benefits.

"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."

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.

Director of the Guernsey Community Foundation and former head of income support Jim Roberts said the island'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 families working full time that still need that top-up just to get them to that basic requirement.

"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.

In 2016, deputies voted to reduce family allowance by £2.40 per child each week as a way of funding most of the new provision.

More than half of the island's current States members told charity IslandFamilies at last year's general election they supported the States-sponsored pre-school hours.

Education, Sport and Culture Vice-President Andy Cameron said he wanted to double the entitlement to 30 hours per child but did not specify how it would be paid for.

Such a move would be a big help to Pang, since a large portion of her monthly income goes towards childcare.

"It's hard to find that support and unless you have family that can look after your child five days a week while you go to work, then it's not feasible," she said.

Instead, she works "as much as I can" at her second job, on top of her first full-time job.

"It's then nursery pick-ups, bath, bed. I don't really get much time for myself, it's just the sacrifice to be able to have her in nursery," she said.

For now, Pang feels like she will have to continue working two jobs. But she remains critical of what she feels are mixed messages.

"It's almost like the States are telling me, well if you just stay at home and play in the park all day or sit on the beach all day, we'll just pay you.

"So why sit in an office 35 hours a week when you don't need to do that?

"When people do want to work they're almost discouraging you to not go out and work, which is kind of a kick in the teeth."

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