The number of staff leaving the Department for Work and Pensions, or one of its arm’s-length bodies, with some kind of exit package doubled in the last financial year while costs trebled, it has emerged.
Figures in DWP’s annual report and accounts for 2025-26, which was published earlier this month, show that 305 staff left the core department with an exit package in the year – up from 158 the previous year.
Adding in further departures at the department’s agencies and public bodies – which include the Health and Safety Executive and the Money and Pensions Service – gives a total of 331 staff departing with an exit package in 2025-26. That represents a group-wide increase of 144 on the previous year.
The rise in exit packages came against the backdrop of an overall hike in headcount at DWP and its wider departmental group.
According to the annual report and accounts, DWP and its public bodies had an average full-time equivalent headcount of 91,306 in 2025-26, up from 89,236 the previous year.
In 2024-25, all but two of the core department’s exit packages were compulsory redundancies. For 2025-26, just under one third of the exits were compulsory.
According to the annual report and accounts, DWP’s core spend on exit packages was £14.4m in 2025-26, up from £4.3m the previous year. Across the whole departmental group, £15.6m was spent on exit packages, up from £5.2m in 2024-25.
The majority of the 2025-26 exit packages were bracketed in the ranges of £25,001-£50,000 and £50,001-£100,000.
Elsewhere, DWP’s annual report and accounts records a 7% year-on-year rise in senior civil servant numbers.
The report says there were 324 members of the SCS working for the department as of 31 March this year. The figure provided for 2025 was 302. Most of the increase was at SCS Pay Band 1.
DWP said its SCS headcount for 2026 equated to 316 full-time equivalent staff members.
Civil Service World sought a departmental response to the exit-package numbers.
A DWP spokesperson said: “The increase in exit activity reflects organisational changes across the department, including site closures undertaken to deliver better value for money for taxpayers.
“Workforce decisions are taken carefully, and support is available to employees affected by these changes.”