Department for Work and Pensions
Encyclopedia
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the largest government department in the United Kingdom
, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security
and headed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
, a Cabinet
position. The total annual budget of the DWP in 2011-12 is £151.6 billion, representing approximately 28% of total UK Government spending. The DWP spends a far greater share of national wealth than any other department in Britain, by a wide margin.
The Permanent Secretary
is Robert Devereux
.
The department's public bodies include:
DWP has corporate buildings in London
, Leeds
, Blackpool
, Newcastle upon Tyne
, Warrington
and Sheffield
. The two agencies, Jobcentre Plus and the Pension, Disability and Carers Service, operate through a network of around 1,000 Jobcentres, contact centres and benefit processing centres across the UK.
After the departure of John Suffolk as Government Chief Information Officer
(CIO) in November 2010, the current CIO of the Department for Work and Pensions, Joe Harley, was picked to replace him.
and Pensim2
, to examine the effects of changes in policy. Datasets held include the LLMDB
and the Family Resources Survey
.
.
Northern Ireland
has parity with Great Britain
in three areas:
Policy in these areas is technically devolved but, in practice, follows policy set by Parliament
to provide consistency across the United Kingdom
. Employment and health and safety policy are fully devolved.
The DWP's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:
. There are 2.6m individuals in the UK claiming Incapacity Benefit, approximately 8.5% of the total adult workforce in the United Kingdom of around 30.1m individuals.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security
Department of Social Security
The Department of Social Security is the name of a defunct governmental agency in the United Kingdom.The DSS replaced the older Department of Health and Social Security, from 1988 until 2001, when it was itself largely replaced as a department of the Government of the United Kingdom by the...
and headed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry...
, a Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
position. The total annual budget of the DWP in 2011-12 is £151.6 billion, representing approximately 28% of total UK Government spending. The DWP spends a far greater share of national wealth than any other department in Britain, by a wide margin.
Role
The department is responsible for welfare and pension policy. Its key aims are "to help its customers become financially independent and to help reduce child poverty".Ministers
The DWP Ministers are as follows:| Minister | Rank | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith Iain Duncan Smith George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003... MP |
Secretary of State Secretary of State for Work and Pensions The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry... |
Overall responsibility | |
| The Rt Hon Chris Grayling Chris Grayling Christopher Stephen "Chris" Grayling, PC, MP , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Shadow Cabinet from 2005 to 2010 and was the party's Shadow Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010. Following the 2010 general election, he was appointed a Minister of State in the... MP |
Minister of State | Employment | |
| Steve Webb Steve Webb Steven John Webb, better known as Steve Webb , is an English Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Thornbury & Yate and the Minister of State for Pensions.-Background:... MP |
Minister of State | Pensions | |
| Maria Miller Maria Miller Maria Frances Lewis Miller is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Basingstoke since the 2005 general election... MP |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Disabled people | |
| Lord Freud | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Welfare reform |
| Key | Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House... |
|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the... |
The Permanent Secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...
is Robert Devereux
Robert Devereux
Robert Devereux may refer to:*Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, executed for treason*Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, son of the above*Roberto Devereux, an opera by Donizetti*Robert Devereux...
.
Structure
The Department for Work and Pensions has two operational organisations:- Jobcentre PlusJobcentre PlusJobcentre Plus was a government agency for working-age people in Great Britain. The agency was formed when the Employment Service, which operated Jobcentres, merged with the Benefits Agency, which ran social security offices, and was re-named Jobcentre Plus on 1 April 2002...
helps people prepare for work and find appropriate employment and delivers working age benefits such as Jobseeker's AllowanceJobseeker's AllowanceJobseeker's Allowance is a United Kingdom benefit, colloquially known as the dole . It is a form of unemployment benefit paid by the government to people who are unemployed and seeking work. It is part of the social security benefits system and is intended to cover living expenses while the...
and Employment and Support AllowanceEmployment and Support AllowanceEmployment and Support Allowance is a UK Government State Benefit which replaced new claims for Incapacity Benefit and Income Support on the basis of incapacity for work for most claimants from 27 October 2008. Initially, claimants already receiving Incapacity Benefit continued to receive it as...
; - The Pension, Disability and Carers ServiceThe Pension, Disability and Carers ServiceThe Pension, Disability and Carers Service is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions which was created in April 2008.The PDCS brings together two former separate executive agencies, The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service. These two agencies have kept their...
containing two sub-organisations, The Pension Service and Disability and Carers Service. The former pays the Basic State PensionBasic state pensionThe Basic State Pension , is part of the United Kingdom Government pension arrangement, alongside the Graduated Retirement Benefit and State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme .- Background :...
and Pension CreditPension CreditPension Credit was introduced in the UK in 2003 by Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was designed to lift a large number of the poorest retired people out of poverty. It replaced the Minimum Income Guarantee, which had been introduced in 1997...
and provides information on related issues; the latter provides financial support to disabled people and their carers.
The department's public bodies include:
- the Health and Safety ExecutiveHealth and Safety ExecutiveThe Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
- the Pensions OmbudsmanPensions OmbudsmanThe Pensions Ombudsman is the official ombudsman institution responsible for investigating complaints regarding pensions in the United Kingdom. The Pensions Ombudsman is a non-departmental public body, and the holder is appointed by the Government, but acts independently after appointment. His...
- the Pensions Regulator
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
and Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. The two agencies, Jobcentre Plus and the Pension, Disability and Carers Service, operate through a network of around 1,000 Jobcentres, contact centres and benefit processing centres across the UK.
After the departure of John Suffolk as Government Chief Information Officer
Chief information officer
Chief information officer , or information technology director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals...
(CIO) in November 2010, the current CIO of the Department for Work and Pensions, Joe Harley, was picked to replace him.
Research
The DWP is a major commissioner of external social science research, with the objective of providing the evidence base needed to inform departmental strategy, policy-making and delivery. The DWP has developed and uses two micro-economic models, the Policy Simulation ModelPolicy Simulation Model
The Policy Simulation Model is a static microsimulation model which encapsulates the tax and benefits system, and population, of Great Britain. It is based on survey data from the FRS, which is uprated to simulate the current year, together with a few years into the future.The model is built using...
and Pensim2
Pensim2
Pensim2 is a dynamic microsimulation model to simulate the income of pensioners, owned by the British Department for Work and Pensions.Pensim2 is the second version of Pensim which was developed in the 1990s. The time horizon of the model is 100 years, by which time today's school leavers will...
, to examine the effects of changes in policy. Datasets held include the LLMDB
LLMDB
The Lifelong Labour Market Database is a panel data set, owned by the Department for Work and Pensions in Britain. LLMDB2 holds a 1% sample from the new National Insurance Recording System and is a fully representative sample of around 600000 people. LLMDB2 started to record the income and other...
and the Family Resources Survey
Family Resources Survey
The Family Resources Survey is a survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics and the National Centre for Social Research on an annual basis, collecting information on the incomes and circumstances of private households in Great Britain...
.
Devolution and parity
Employment, health and safety, and social security policy are reserved matters in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
has parity with Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in three areas:
- social securitySocial securitySocial security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
- child supportChild supportIn family law and public policy, child support is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child following the end of a marriage or other relationship...
- pensions
Policy in these areas is technically devolved but, in practice, follows policy set by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
to provide consistency across the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Employment and health and safety policy are fully devolved.
The DWP's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:
- the Department for Social DevelopmentDepartment for Social DevelopmentThe Department for Social Development is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister for Social Development.-Aim:...
(administers welfare policy) - the Department for Employment and LearningDepartment for Employment and LearningThe Department for Employment and Learning , formerly the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment , is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive...
- the Department of Enterprise, Trade and InvestmentDepartment of Enterprise, Trade and InvestmentThe Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive...
(oversees the Health and Safety Executive for Northern IrelandHealth and Safety Executive for Northern IrelandThe Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland is a Northern Ireland non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. It is responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of occupational health and safety in Northern Ireland...
)
Cost
The total annual budget of the DWP in 2011-12 is £151.6 billion, representing approximately 28% of total UK Government spending. Of this sum, £12.5 billion is spent on Incapacity BenefitIncapacity benefit
Incapacity Benefit is a United Kingdom state benefit that is paid to those below the State Pension age who cannot work because of illness or disability and have made National Insurance contributions. It is administered by Jobcentre Plus...
. There are 2.6m individuals in the UK claiming Incapacity Benefit, approximately 8.5% of the total adult workforce in the United Kingdom of around 30.1m individuals.
See also
- Benefit fraudBenefit fraudBenefit fraud is a form of welfare fraud as found within the system of government benefits paid to individuals by the UK welfare state.- What is benefit fraud? :...
- Incapacity BenefitIncapacity benefitIncapacity Benefit is a United Kingdom state benefit that is paid to those below the State Pension age who cannot work because of illness or disability and have made National Insurance contributions. It is administered by Jobcentre Plus...
- Pensions CommissionPensions CommissionThe Pensions Commission was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, reporting to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, set up to keep under review the regime for UK private pensions and long-term savings....
- Office of Manpower EconomicsOffice of Manpower EconomicsThe Office of Manpower Economics is a non-statutory body set up to provide an independent Secretariat for each of the six Pay Review Bodies and the Police Negotiating Board and Police Advisory Board for England & Wales...
- The Pension, Disability and Carers ServiceThe Pension, Disability and Carers ServiceThe Pension, Disability and Carers Service is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions which was created in April 2008.The PDCS brings together two former separate executive agencies, The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service. These two agencies have kept their...
- United Kingdom budgetUnited Kingdom budgetThe United Kingdom budget deals with HM Treasury budgeting the revenues gathered by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and expenditures of public sector departments, in compliance with government policy.Adjustment is achieved with the GDP deflator....
- Welfare RightsWelfare RightsWelfare Rights is an activity aimed at ensuring that people are aware of and receiving their maximum entitlement to state welfare benefits. It has been established in the UK since 1969 and has also been developed in other countries including Ireland, Australia and the USA...