Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to address cases where DWP staff meet the annual Skilled Worker Visa salary threshold but are affected by the method used to calculate hourly pay.

When assessing salaries for visa purposes, our approach is consistent with that taken in national minimum wage guidance, which states:

‘If you pay a salaried worker their normal salary while they are absent from work and this forms a part of their employment contract, the time of the absence counts towards the worker’s time worked for minimum wage purposes. For example, during rest breaks, lunch breaks, holidays, sickness absence or maternity / paternity / adoption leave.’

We do not plan to change our approach, as it could open up inconsistencies with wider employment regulation.

A decision on whether to amend employment contracts, so that salaries reflect the actual hours worked, would be for an employer to make.