50,000 DWP staff to ballot for strikes

Via Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS):

Members of Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are angry about chronic low pay and wage compression.

Nearly 50,000 members (who work in jobcentres, Universal Credit service centres, Personal Independence Payment centres, pension centres and child maintenance offices) begin a statutory ballot for strike action on Monday 19 January which will run until 23 February.

There are 25,000 workers in the lowest three pay grades whose wages will all be at the National Living Wage as of 1 April 2026. DWP’s 2025/26 pay offer did not address this and was rejected by PCS. The readiness of members to strike was tested in a consultative ballot in October.

There is a recruitment and retention crisis in DWP. This, along with the significant transformation being proposed in DWP, qualifies the department to request an increase in spending on pay from the Treasury. Unlike other departments, DWP did not make a business case to the Treasury, despite recognising that they could have access to at least £6.6m to increase spending on consolidated pay.

Members demand that the department re-opens 2025/26 pay talks, submits a business case to the Treasury for increased spending on pay, and works with PCS to focus on the department’s lowest paid staff.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote says:

Strike action is always the last resort. Our members want to work. They are proud of the job they do in DWP because they know it’s of great value to society. But this level of poverty pay is not sustainable.

Members across the department have told us that they are struggling financially as debt spirals. And as workplace stress increases, people’s mental health further deteriorates.

The functioning of the welfare state depends on our members’ hard work and good will. But DWP has some of the lowest paid members in the civil service, paid well below the market value for their skilled work.