The Government had already set a target for the national living wage to reach two-thirds of median hourly pay by October next year. The Low Pay Commission estimates the rate required to meet that target should be between £10.90 and £11.43, with a central estimate of £11.16 – equal to a rise of 7.1 per cent.
'At the moment it is £10.42 an hour and we are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to confirm its recommendation for next year,' Mr Hunt will say. 'But I confirm today, whatever that recommendation, we will increase it next year to at least £11 an hour.'
For a full-time worker, the pay rise will be worth more than £1,000 a year. The national living wage was announced by George Osborne in 2016 as an enhancement to the minimum wage.
Mr Hunt will today say it has succeeded in lifting two million people out of absolute poverty, adding: 'That's the Conservative way of improving the lives of working people. Boosting pay, cutting tax.'
Details of the benefits crackdown are still being hammered out by ministers and will be unveiled in the Chancellor's autumn statement next month.
A Tory source said the move would be targeted at up to 100,000 benefit claimants who refuse to look for work or take a job.
Source: morningstar.co.uk
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