Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of workers that earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit.

The Department’s latest estimate is that in Quarter 1 of the financial year 2022/23 there were around 1.5 million employees, 5% of th, in the UK who earned below the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL). This figure does not include workers who are self-employed.

This is an update to the position from the DWP’s 2019 ‘Health is Everyone’s Business’ consultation using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). In the 2022/23 financial year, the LEL was set at £123 per week.