Members of the PCS union who work at the Department for Work and Pensions are being balloted for potential industrial action over their 2025-26 pay offer.
DWP’s offer has already been rejected by the union on the grounds that it does not do enough to boost wages of staff at the lowest grades and “fails to address the serious issue of chronic low pay”.
PCS said its consultative ballot of members at DWP – which is currently the UK government’s largest department, measured by total headcount – would test the appetite of staff for strike action and action short of strike. The ballot opened yesterday and is due to run until 30 September.
The government sets the annual pay remit for civil servants below the senior grades. For 2025-26 it allows departments an average uplift of 3.25% with the option of an additional 0.5% to be targeted at “specific workforce issues”.
How departments distribute the increase between staff at different grades is up to them. PCS argues that DWP has failed to adequately boost the pay of administrative assistants, administrative officers and executive officers.
It said DWP’s offer was worth 3.75% for AAs, increasing their pay to £27,774; 4.01% for AOs, raising their pay to £27,844; and 3.75% for EOs, taking their annual pay to £32,137.
PCS said DWP’s distribution of the 2025-26 pay award meant that AAs, AOs and some EOs would face the prospect of being on the National Living Wage from April next year.
It said DWP staff at those grades fared poorly compared with counterparts at the Cabinet Office, the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice.
PCS said that AOs and EOs at the Cabinet Office had been given a 4.75% uplift for 2025-26, while DfE had awarded AAs 6.4% and AOs up to 7.88%.
The union said that the MoJ had awarded AAs 5.6% and AOs 5.7%.
PCS said it had pressed DWP leadership to use the flexibilities the pay-remit guidance offers to protect the lowest paid and “build a buffer” between AA, AO and EO pay and the forecasted 2026 National Living Wage. It said the department refused.
“Instead, for the second year running, DWP chose to focus on fixing structural issues for SEO, grade 7 and specialist roles, making them more competitive with other departments,” the union said. “Meanwhile, the majority of the lowest-paid staff, who will be central to delivering the government’s transformation programme, remain stuck at the bottom.”
PCS said DWP had also “refused to act” on the union’s call for the department to submit a business case to HM Treasury seeking additional flexibilities to address recruitment and retention risks.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring competitive pay for all employees, and we have listened to feedback from trade unions, which helped influence the final offer.
“The current pay award reflects our ongoing efforts to balance various priorities and meet our staffing needs.”
DWP staff are due to get their 2025-26 award paid at the end of this month, backdated to 1 July.