Cleaning company first in UK to become a Living Pension Employer

This will ensure that their workers are more likely to retire with a ‘living pension’. 
 
 
The Living Pension is a new Living Wage Foundation accreditation for employers who want to help workers boost their pension pots. Clean for Good is an award-winning ethical cleaning company and has become the first cleaning company in the UK to become a Living Pension Employer.
 
 
Clean for Good was one of the first cleaning companies in the UK to become a fully accredited Living Wage Employer and a B-Corp, It was the first to adopt the Fair Tax Mark and now it is the first UK cleaning company to become a Living Pension Employer.
 
The company was established as a social business to provide a fairer deal for cleaners and to drive change in a sector that is infamous for low pay and poor conditions.
 
The Living Pension accreditation, awarded by the Living Wage Foundation, is a voluntary savings target for employers who want to help workers, especially those on low pay, build up a pension pot that will provide enough income to meet basic everyday needs in retirement. It launched in March 2023.
 
A Living Pension Employer must meet a pension savings target of 12% of a full time Living Wage worker’s salary, including a minimum 7% employer contribution. Clean for Good is providing an 8% employer contribution, asking employees to provide just 4%, delivering a dignified pension at a low cost to employees. The scheme is voluntary for employees, who can opt in if they wish to benefit.
 
The Living Pension builds on auto-enrolment, which requires a minimum 8% pension savings, with employers contributing at least 3% and workers paying the remaining 5%. (The Living Pension savings target can also be met as a cash amount of £2950 a year, to which the employer must contribute at least £1720).
 
 
Charlie Walker, Clean for Good’s managing director said: “We want to provide our cleaners with a living wage both at work and into retirement. We believe cleaning, in and of itself, is a dignified job and career. So, if you choose to work with Clean for Good we want to honour that, to invest in you, and pay a fair wage both now and after you retire. This is the right thing to do”
 
Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, added: “We are delighted that Clean for Good has signed up as a Living Pension employer, providing stability and security for their workers now and in the future. Over the last ten years the Living Wage campaign has grown in strength and numbers. Now paid by over 15,000 employers, it delivers essential pay rises to 460,000 workers every year.

"The Living Pension builds on this by encouraging employers like Clean for Good to do more to help their workers build a pension pot that meets basic everyday needs in retirement.”
 
Christine Ellis, a cleaner employed at Clean for Good said: “I feel strongly that the Living Pension is a great way to build on my savings funds for retirement alongside the Living Wage standard scheme that has been put into great effect. With the contributions from my employer and me as the employee I could reach my target to live within an acceptable standard when retired.”