Rebecca Evans MS, Minister for Finance and Local Government
The Welsh Government will today publish the Draft Budget, including funding to ensure social care workers continue to receive the real living wage.
It will include recurrent funding of around £70m to raise the wages of social care workers, as part of our wider commitment to protect frontline public services.
Local authorities and health boards will receive the funding to implement the real living wage uplift – to £10.90 an hour – with workers feeling the benefit by June 2023.
The real living wage is independently calculated by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission. The uplift will apply to registered workers in care homes and domiciliary care, in both adults and children’s services. It will also include personal assistants who provide care and support which is funded through a direct payment.
Despite the challenging economic and fiscal context, we remain fully committed to doing all we can to protect the frontline public services that people rely on.
I am pleased to be able to maintain our commitment to social care workers, and I will be saying more about how we will protect public services when I announce the full details of the Draft Budget later today.