Social Services: Minimum Wage

Department of Health written question – answered at on 7 September 2017.

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Photo of Layla Moran Layla Moran Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Education)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of claims made by care providers that paying historical minimum wage arrears owed to care workers who have carried out sleep-in shifts would compromise the financial viability of that sector.

Photo of Jackie Doyle-Price Jackie Doyle-Price The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health

The Government has received many representations from social care providers about the implications of being required to pay penalties or arrears relating to underpayment of the National Minimum Wage. The Government will waive the financial penalties faced by employers who are found to have underpaid their workers for “sleep-in” shifts. The waiver is to apply to any arrears of pay resulting from “sleep-in” shifts that took place before 26 July 2017.

The Government will continue to work with representatives of the social care sector to see how it might be possible to minimise any impact on provision of social care as a result of this situation. To allow this work to take place before deadlines of arrears of wages are enforced, the Government has adopted a policy of temporarily suspending enforcement activity of “sleep-in” shifts. This suspension will apply until 2 October 2017.

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