DWP Staffing campaign - Members' Meeting 20 December
The online meeting on Wednesday at 6pm for all DWP members will discuss the DWP Staffing Campaign.
We will also be holding a meeting for all members in the DWP by Zoom on Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 6pm to discuss the campaign and the launch of the members' testimonies dossier. Please invite non-members and ask them to join PCS.
Staffing chaos
On 27 September 2023 we issued information to members detailing the chaotic staffing situation within DWP and asked members for direct feedback on their experiences. We have been inundated with responses, some of which make for difficult reading, and we want to thank members who took the time to tell their stories. It is clear that DWP is in crisis.
Since then, the government has compounded the situation by indicating that it expects civil service departments to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels, which would see a drastic reduction in staffing for DWP. At the same time, it has continued to make announcements, including in the Autumn Statement, aimed at targeting those who are out of work, which will dramatically add to DWP’s current workload. Either of these things on their own would cause huge problems for DWP, the two together (an increase in workload with a reduction in staff) will be absolutely impossible to achieve.
Staffing Campaign
We have pulled together a hard-hitting dossier from the feedback that we had from members and delivered it to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the DWP Permanent Secretary on 5 December 2023. We are also demanding a meeting with both to put our demands to them directly. We are also raising our concerns with the Work and Pensions Select Committee and with the Labour Party frontbench.
Members’ meetings to discuss staffing will be held shortly. Please check with your local reps when your meeting will be taking place.
Attack on Hybrid Working
To add insult to injury, the government is intent on adding to the staffing crisis by imposing a requirement of 60% office-based working on any hybrid working arrangements. DWP is struggling now to recruit and retain, so any further detrimental change to working conditions will only make matters worse. It will also severely reduce the Department’s ability to recruit the much-needed extra staff, as it is already having problems accommodating existing staffing numbers when people only need to be in the office for 40% of their time.
Please join the meeting on 20 December to let us have your views.