Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials employed by his Department, of each grade, have remained at that grade since 2010 but received a pay rise; and how much of a rise each such person at each such grade has received.

To provide this information would incur disproportionate costs.

For 2012 and 2013, because of the nature of the awards applied to delegated grades, staff would have received a 1% increase on base pay whether they remained in grade or were promoted during the year subject to standard eligibility criteria.

DWP does not have contractual progression. All our employees are subject to the pay freeze and pay caps in place since 2010. In May 2010 the Government announced a two year pay freeze for civil servants earning over £21,000. The pay freeze applied to this Department in 2010 and 2011.

For staff earning under £21,000, for both 2010 and 2011 DWP awarded staff a flat rate increase by grade of between £400 and £540. Additionally during 2010 the AA band minimum was increased by between £890 and £1060 (depending on location) which lead to a slightly higher increase for some staff. Following Cabinet Office rules, a small number who earned just over £21,000 received smaller payments, using a taper system, to ensure that they were not ‘leapfrogged’ by peers slightly lower down the pay scale.

In 2012 and 2013 DWP awarded a 1% increase to the vast majority of our staff across all delegated grades. DWP will again be paying the majority of our employees a 1% increase in 2014.

For SCS in DWP the pay freeze was in place for three years from 2010 to 2012. In 2013 DWP paid around 22% of its SCS cadre increases within an overall 1% cap and with a Cabinet Office limit on individual awards of 9%. The majority of our SCS will not have received a pay award between 2010 and 2013.

Figures for the 2014 SCS and delegated pay awards will not be available until they have been processed at the end of this month.

Below the line comments

1. Because of the numbers involved we are unable to provide information tracking every individual’s pay rise over the period within time and cost perimeters.

2. DWP currently employs 92,510 people and we are not able to provide details for each of these individuals. However, as DWP has applied a simple pay award over each of the years required I am able to summarise our position.

3. The PQ asks for information on pay rises exclusive of changes in grade (most usually promotion). By providing information on pay awards, we will be excluding a small number of pay rises which are due to other factors such as a move to a location which attracts a higher salary (DWP has 4 locational pay zones). It also excludes salary increases as a result of a change in contractual hours.

4. The 2014 pay award will be paid in July salaries. We will not have details of final figures until this has been processed.

5. A small number of individuals are not eligible to receive the pay award e.g. because they are undergoing formal poor performance action in a particular year or are on a salary above the appropriate pay scale maximum.