One in five DWP staff claim benefits, poll finds

Number of staff needing to supplement wages has doubled in six months

One in five workers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claim in-work benefits, with the figure having doubled in just six months, polling revealed.

The survey of 35,568 Public and Commercial Services union members revealed 20 per cent of respondents were in receipt of benefits, including Universal Credit, to supplement their wages.

More than double the number of members said they were on benefits than in a poll taken in September.

DWP workers have lately been calling for massive improvement to pay and working conditions. Hundreds of staff at Job Centres are set to strike next month, following walkouts in December and February by civil servants working for the department.

The survey also showed 7 per cent of respondents had foodbanks or a foodshare system at work and 12 per cent had a second or third job to boost their income. The proportion who said they had used foodbanks in the past twelve months was 11 per cent, up from 8 per cent one year earlier.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: “If ministers had a conscience, they would be ashamed to be paying their own workforce so little they have to claim the benefits they themselves administer.

“Ministers should be paying their staff a decent wage that keeps up with the rate of inflation, not leaving them to rely on foodbanks so they can eat.

“That so many foodbanks have been set up in government offices is a stain on ministers, who must take note of this survey and take action to address this unacceptable in-work poverty.

“If they fail to do that, they’ll be failing their own workforce, and it will be no surprise that our members vote ‘Yes’ in the re-ballot and strike action in the civil service escalates.”

The survey also found that managers at one DWP office refused to allow staff to open a foodbank.

One DWP worker told PCS: “Staff in my workplace asked for a foodbank to help each other out, but the management team blocked it, saying it would make bad press if it got out.

“I think it makes even worse press that we were denied the chance to help our own colleagues.”

Another said: “We had to use foodbanks for the first time in my life this year because the cost-of-living crisis, especially the exorbitant rent crisis.”

A third said, simply: “I sleep hungry.”