PCS has asked the Department for Work and Pensions to reopen pay talks, describing the department's 2025-26 pay offer as "unacceptable".
The pay award is due to be backdated to 1 July and paid on 30 September.
The civil service union said it has written to DWP permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, demanding that pay talks for 2025-26 are reopened "to address low pay".
PCS said it put forward a “clear and viable” business case to address low pay using the civil service pay remit’s flexibility, which the department “rejected outright”.
The union said the department instead “prioritised structural pay issues at senior grades, leaving AA, AO, and EO staff, particularly those who opted out of the Employee Deal, once again facing the prospect of being uplifted to the National Living Wage in April 2026".
Officials in the department have been offered different percentage increases depending on whether or not they are part of DWP’s Employee Deal pay structure.
The Employee Deal, which was negotiated in 2016, allowed civil servants at lower grades to opt in to receive pay rises of up to 20% over four years, in exchange for changes to their contracted hours.
According to PCS, for those who accepted the Employee Deal, DWP has agreed the following pay awards for the AA, AO and EO grades:
- AA: 3.75% increase to £27,774
- AO: 4.01% increase to £27,844
- EO: 3.75% increase to £32,137
For those who opted out of the Employee Deal, the increases are lower, with some EOs receiving 3.25%, PCS said.
This year’s pay award limited departments and agencies to an overall 3.25% increase in average pay for staff this financial year, plus 0.5% to be targeted at “specific departmental workforce issues”. Examples of acceptable areas for such spending include helping the lowest-paid staff members, as well as targeting pay to address skills shortages, improving productivity, and rewarding delivery towards the government’s missions.
The union said DWP’s “refusal to act makes it an outlier in its treatment of the lowest paid”.
It said other departments were “doing more” for staff at lower grades, pointing to pay deals at the Cabinet Office (AO & EO – 4.75%); Department for Education (AA – 6.4%, AO – up to 7.88%); and Ministry of Justice (AA – 5.6%, AO – 5.7%).
PCS’s DWP group executive committee has agreed to move to a consultative ballot to test members’ readiness to take action.
A DWP spokesperson said: "We are committed to ensuring competitive pay for all employees, and we have listened to feedback from trade unions, which has helped influence the final offer.
“The current pay award reflects our ongoing efforts to balance various priorities and meet our staffing needs.”