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<p>The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation
and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should
receive it.</p><br /><p>Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only
have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial
penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will
come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to
200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.</p><br
/><p>The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has
been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into
front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed
at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.</p><br /><p>The second tranche
of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to
promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support
for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance
where deliberate behaviour is suspected.</p><br /><p>Staff across HMRC contribute
to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt
management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record
the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.</p><br
/><p>HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities.
For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to
the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet
to be confirmed.</p><br />
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