Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions
Logo of the Department for Work and Pensions
Department overview
Formed	2001
Preceding Department	Department for Education and Skills Department of Social Security
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	London
Annual budget	£151.6 Billion
Minister responsible	Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Department executive	Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary
Child agencies	Jobcentre Plus The Pension, Disability and Carers Service
Website
www.dwp.gov.uk

United Kingdom

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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.

Role

The department is responsible for welfare and pension policy.^[1] Its key aims are "to help its customers become financially independent and to help reduce child poverty".^[2]

Ministers

The DWP Ministers are as follows:^[3]

The Permanent Secretary is Robert Devereux.

Structure

The Department for Work and Pensions has two operational organisations:^[4]

• Jobcentre Plus helps people prepare for work and find appropriate employment and delivers working age benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance;
• The Pension, Disability and Carers Service containing two sub-organisations, The Pension Service and Disability and Carers Service. The former pays the Basic State Pension and Pension Credit and provides information on related issues; the latter provides financial support to disabled people and their carers.

The department's public bodies include:^[5]

• the Health and Safety Executive
• the Pensions Ombudsman
• the Pensions Regulator

DWP buildings at Quarry Hill, Leeds (known locally as 'The Pink Palace' and 'The Kremlin')

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,^[6] the current CIO of the Department for Work and Pensions, Joe Harley, was picked to replace him.^[7]

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.^[8] The DWP has developed and uses two micro-economic models, the Policy Simulation Model and Pensim2, to examine the effects of changes in policy. Datasets held include the LLMDB and the Family Resources Survey.

Devolution and parity

Employment, health and safety, and social security policy are reserved matters in Scotland.^[9]

Northern Ireland has parity with Great Britain in three areas:

• social security
• child support
• pensions

Policy in these areas is technically devolved but, in practice, follows policy set by Parliament to provide consistency across the United Kingdom.^[10] Employment and health and safety policy are fully devolved.

The DWP's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:

• the Department for Social Development (administers welfare policy)
• the Department for Employment and Learning
• the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (oversees the Health and Safety Executive for 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.^[11] Of this sum, £12.5 billion is spent on Incapacity Benefit.^[12] 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.^[13]

See also

• Benefit fraud
• Incapacity Benefit
• Pensions Commission
• Office of Manpower Economics
• The Pension, Disability and Carers Service
• United Kingdom budget
• Welfare Rights

References

External links

• Department for Work and Pensions
• DWP YouTube channel

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