| 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 | £174.3 billion (social security benefits), £7.6 billion (current) & £200 million (capital) in 2011-12 [1] [2] |
| 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.
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The department is responsible for welfare and pension policy.[3] Its key aims are "to help its customers become financially independent and to help reduce child poverty".[4]
The DWP Ministers are as follows:[5]
| Minister | Rank | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP | Secretary of State | Overall responsibility | |
| The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP | Minister of State | Employment | |
| Steve Webb MP | Minister of State | Pensions | |
| Maria Miller MP | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Disabled people | |
| Lord Freud | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Welfare reform | |
| Key | Conservative | |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat |
The Permanent Secretary is Robert Devereux.
The Department for Work and Pensions has two operational organisations:[6]
The department's public bodies include:[7]
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,[8] the current CIO of the Department for Work and Pensions, Joe Harley, was picked to replace him.[9]
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.[10] 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.
Employment, health and safety, and social security policy are reserved matters in Scotland.[11]
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.[12] Employment and health and safety policy are fully devolved.
The DWP's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:
The total annual budget of the DWP in 2011-12 is £151.6 billion, representing approximately 28% of total UK Government spending.[13] Of this sum, £12.5 billion is spent on Incapacity Benefit.[14] 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.[15]