Non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage
Sir Robin Wales
This guest post is by Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham
The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) is widely regarded as one of the most impactful policies of recent decades. Its success as a policy is illustrated by the fact that the need for a minimum wage is rarely questioned any more, even as the government looks to repeal other areas of business legislation. This is great achievement, and the debate has now moved on to discussion over what level the minimum wage should be set at to cover living costs.
These debates are important. But, as the Resolution Foundation has highlighted, with them we have lost sight of a vital issue: enforcement. What many people do not realise is that there is a hidden economy operating where workers are still not receiving the NMW. Without improved enforcement of the law these abuses will continue.
The London Borough of Newham is today publishing research showing that in Newham a shortage of job opportunities combined with a lack of skills, confidence and knowledge of the NMW means workers end up in informal jobs paying measly wages.
The scandal of low-paid care workers
Gavin Kelly and Joe Coward
This post originally appeared on the New Statesman blog
A friend who is a care worker employed by an agency has a moan to me about her work. Repeated 15 minute slots with a client followed by a frantic dash to another part of the city she lives in to do the same again. Care in a hurry, on the cheap. Welcome to home care for growing numbers in Britain: some of our most vulnerable people cared for by a growing number of overly stretched and underpaid workers.
Dilnot survives the Russian front... for now
Gavin Kelly
This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog
Social care is a minefield for politicians - and the Dilnot report offers no easy option for the government or the opposition.
"One of the three Russian fronts of Whitehall". That's how a very senior Whitehall mandarin described social care to me over a decade ago. Alongside housing benefit and local government finance, social care has long been seen as one of Westminster's most difficult policy challenges.
For another interesting blog on Dilnot read Matthew Taylor
The long-term problem for "generation rent"
Vidhya Alakeson
This article first appeared in the New Statesman
We need to stop relying on home-ownership as the only way to build wealth if we're to have an adequate social care system.
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