Hundreds of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff are facing losing their jobs – just as the Labour Party government is claiming it wants to ‘support’ chronically ill, disabled, and non-working people into employment.
The news flies in the face of the government’s claims – and shows that, far from a thought-out policy, the DWP is merely enacting cuts for the sake of cuts, while allowing the loss of countless departmental staff.
500 DWP staff face losing their jobs
As Civil Service World reported, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union warns that around 500 DWP employees could lose their jobs and their right to remain in the UK due to a peculiar quirk in how the department calculates hourly pay.
While 35 members have already been forced out, the impact may escalate, undermining efforts at a time when the government is trying to force chronically ill and disabled people into work.
One of those affected is Farouq Ahmed, an enforcement case manager for the Child Maintenance Service, who joined DWP in January 2024 on a graduate visa. His plan was to transition to a skilled-worker visa before the graduate visa expired.
Ahmed’s starting salary of £29,500 was above the skilled-worker visa threshold at the time of his hire, but after the government raised salary requirements in April 2024, DWP’s pay policy prevented him from applying within the necessary timeframe.
The complication arises because DWP pays its staff for lunch breaks, effectively spreading the salary over a 42-hour week rather than the standard 37 hours.
Although Ahmed’s nominal salary met the threshold for “new entrant” visa rules, his hourly pay fell below the required level when calculated with DWP’s unusual methodology – £14.18 per hour instead of the £15.88 per hour required.
Consequently, his application for leave to remain on a discretionary basis was refused, forcing him to leave his role and return to Nigeria.
Exacerbating existing chaos
PCS highlights that this pay policy is unique to DWP and exacerbates a recruitment crisis in a department already paying below civil service median salaries.
The median DWP salary is £29,500 compared to a civil service-wide median of £33,980, and the Home Office – the only department with a lower median salary – stands at £29,400. This means DWP officials must earn significantly more than their average pay to meet visa thresholds, which is often unrealistic given current pay scales.
Despite PCS proposing a contract variation to resolve the issue, DWP has reportedly rejected such changes, citing Home Office guidelines. In a letter to Keir Starmer, PCS called for urgent intervention to prevent the loss of experienced staff and the further deterioration of the department’s workforce.
The letter said:
Farouq is one of many of the human beings behind the statistics that, but for being in a low-paying department, and being paid for lunch breaks, would still be working in the DWP.”
Amid a shortage of 2,100 work coaches, the letter noted that:
It is therefore incredible that as DWP is facing a staffing crisis, government’s own rules are forcing five hundred or more experienced, highly qualified, university-educated staff that are delivering services to the most vulnerable people in the UK, out of the department.
This staffing crisis is particularly dangerous given the government’s emphasis on encouraging benefit recipients back into employment, a process heavily reliant on work coaches and case managers.
DWP cuts are cruel ideology – and nothing more
The DWP has acknowledged a shortage of roughly 2,100 work coaches – yet the Labour government has not committed to employ any more.
Losing skilled, trained workers due to administrative and policy issues threatens to deepen this shortfall and hinder efforts to reduce unemployment and support welfare recipients.
Ahmed’s case reflects the personal toll of these policies. Having paid more than £22,000 in university fees to study in the UK and committed himself to public service, he describes feeling “used” and betrayed by the very institution he served. He fears the precariousness of his situation will impact not just him, but his family in Nigeria who depend on his support.
A DWP spokesperson stated the department takes staff welfare seriously and continues to support those on time-limited visas but declined to comment on individual cases.
Amid a major staffing shortfall, the DWP cannot afford to lose any more staff – yet here is the Labour government allowing exactly that to happen. It shows that Liz Kendall’s cuts to DWP benefits are purely ideological, not grounded in any form of labour market strategy.
The loss of even more DWP staff will merely exacerbate the existing cruelty of a department not fit for purpose.
Featured image via the Canary
