Millions to get £1,000 a year boost to wages from next year, Hunt will confirm

THE NATIONAL Living Wage will rise to at least £11 per hour from next year – benefiting two million of the lowest paid workers.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will confirm the move in his keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference tomorrow.

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The move means full-time workers will see their annual earnings rise by £1,000 next year.

The intervention comes as government wants the NLW to be two-thirds of median hourly pay by October next year.

The announcement comes as the Low Pay Commission estimates the rate should be between £10.90 and £11.43 – with a central estimate of £11.16.

Mr Hunt will say: “Today I want to complete another great Conservative reform, the national living wage. Since we introduced it, nearly two million people have been lifted from absolute poverty.

“That’s the Conservative way of improving the lives of working people. Boosting pay, cutting tax. But today, we go further with another great Conservative invention, the national living wage.

“We promised in our manifesto to raise the national living wage to two-thirds of median income – ending low pay in this country.

“At the moment it is £10.42 an hour and we are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to confirm its recommendation for next year. But I confirm today, whatever that recommendation, we will increase it next year to at least £11 an hour. A pay rise for over two million workers.”

The Chancellor will crackdown on benefits claimants refusing to find a job as 100,000 people leave the workforce each year for a life on handouts.

The Chancellor will today warn that the system is heading in the “wrong direction” since the pandemic in getting people clocking on.

It comes as Ministers step up their efforts to boost UK productivity adding Labour would take the country in the opposite direction removing incentives to work.

Mr Hunt and Welfare Secretary Mel Stride will use November’s Autumn Statement outline plans for a more rigorous system to claim cash.

Addressing the Tory party’s annual rally in Manchester, he will say: “I am incredibly proud to live in a country where, as Churchill said, there’s a ladder everyone can climb but also a safety net below which no-one falls.”

But paying for that safety net is a social contract that depends on fairness to those in work alongside compassion to those who are not.

He will add: “But since the pandemic, things have being going in the wrong direction. Whilst companies struggle to find workers, around 100,000 people are leaving the labour force every year for a life on benefits.”

As part of that we will look at the way the sanctions regime works.

It is a fundamental matter of fairness.

“Those who won’t even look for work do not deserve the same benefits as people trying hard to do the right thing.”