Department for Work and Pensions: Living Wage

(asked on 13th April 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) direct employees, (b) agency staff and (c) outsourced staff working for (i) his Department and (ii) agencies of his Department are paid less than the living wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 23rd April 2018

From April 2018, all employers in the UK were required to pay a new National Living Wage of £7.83 per hour. The Department for Work and Pensions pays all direct employees at least the statutory National Living Wage, regardless of age.

The Living Wage Foundation (LWF) is an initiative by Citizens UK which advocates employers paying an alternative hourly rate known as the Living Wage or London Living Wage. The current Living Wage is £8.75 and London Living Wage is £10.20.

The information requested in its entirety is not centrally available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The available information has been provided below:

a) There are 114 direct employees of DWP who are below the Living Wage or London Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.

b) DWP and its Agencies’ temporary agency staff are employed in line with Agency Workers Regulations which ensures parity with directly employed staff after 12 weeks.

c) There are 3,051 outsourced staff working on Estates contracts who are below the Living Wage or London Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation. All of these individuals receive at least the National Living Wage as defined by government.

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