Living Wage Week, Sun 5 Nov- Sat 11 Nov, is the annual celebration of the Living Wage movement in the UK.

Our movement is made up of Employers, Experts, Organisations and People who all believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.

On the Monday of Living Wage Week – Monday 6th November – the new Living Wage Rates are announced at a ceremony. These rates apply to all Living Wage accredited employers.

The real Living Wage is annually calculated to reflect the cost of living in the UK and there is a separate, higher, rate in London. It is voluntarily paid by thousands of employers in the UK and applies to all workers over the age of 18 included contracted and subcontracted staff.

For more information on Living Wage Week 2017 – please email: accreditation@livingwage.org.uk 

There has been a change to the way in which courier deliveries are made to Parliament, and you should have received an email giving you the details.

If you haven’t received the email, you can view the information on the intranet.  Please do take the time to go and read it, because it is very important and affects the way in which you need to order and receive goods.

In his final week, Director of the Parliamentary Digital Service Rob Greig reflects on his time working on digital transformation and the challenges ahead, in this excellent podcast from Ben Woodhams and Robert Brook.

Worth subscribing to the UK Parliament feed on Soundcloud for more.

A new online course from Futurelearn will explain how petitioning the UK Parliament works and explore the possible impacts and outcomes. Discuss what makes a petition successful, understand the role of the Petitions Select Committee and explore case studies of petitions that have achieved change.

It has been developed for Parliament Week.

Sign up now to begin online from 13 November 2017

On 31 August each year, Child Benefit stops for those aged 16+

Child Benefit stops on 31 August on or after a child’s 16th birthday if they leave education or training.  It continues if they stay in approved education or training, but the Child Benefit Office must be notified of this.  A letter is sent to parents/guardians in a child’s last year at school, prompting them to notify the
Child Benefit Office.

MPs might receive more correspondence on Child Benefit when the letters are received on or shortly after 31 August.  Contact the Child Benefit hotline for information to help answer constituents’ questions on Child Benefits.

For further information on this, and other Child Benefit issues, please see the Child Benefit section on Gov.UK

 

As a regular listener to the Kermode & Mayo film show on BBC Radio 5 Live, w4mp has long been a member of the ‘Church of Wittertainment‘ – see this entry in the comprehensive ‘Witterpedia‘ for more  – and enjoyed the witty banter between Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode. We normally listen to the podcast and enjoy the lack of interruptions from sport and news, and the extra conversation at the start and end of the broadcast programme.

The Church is an all-encompassing space, and this week it was augmented with a special space for everyone working for an MP, and the delightfully-named Parliamentary Assistants’ Portico has joined Clergy Corner and Apothecaries’ Atrium.

Tom in Westminster, who wrote in after having seen Dunkirk in Peckham. You can catch his intervention at 39:20 on the podcast, downloadable from the BBC website. And if Tom would like to get in touch, we’d be happy to acknowledge his contribution.

If you’d like to contact the show to let them know you’re in the congregation, then email mayo@bbc.co.uk or follow @wittertainment on Twitter.