It’s been revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) gave civil servants over £12.7 million in bonuses in the tax year 2024-2025.
The Telegraph revealed that the Department gave 86,757 junior members of staff an extra £141.10, totalling £12.7 million. This surpasses last year’s bonuses – totalling £11.2m paid for 82,526 members of staff.
Staggering DWP staff bonuses
To add to this, almost 200 senior civil servants received an average bonus of £2,122.35. However, some got even more than this. The permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, and other executives, Amanda Reynolds and Catherine Vaughan, all got somewhere between £10,000 and £15,000 extra last year.
Schofield is one of the people responsible for many DWP failures, including the constant mishandling of the carers scandal. In January he was forced to answer to the Work and Pensions committee for the department’s part in demonising carers.
Chair of the committee Debbie Abrahams asked him how the DWP could justify not making any changes and the department’s attitude towards carers. Steve Darling MP accused him of talking “blancmange”.
To this, Schofield gave a ridiculous soundbite
We care, we deliver we adapt. We work together, we value everybody
Schofield resigned recently, but this was claimed to be for personal reasons, not, of course, him taking responsibility.
DWP defends itself, naturally
On top of these cash bonuses, 57,785 junior civil servants were given reward vouchers of around £39.44. This added up to an extra £4.4 million.
The DWP have, of course, defended this. A spokesperson said:
The DWP is the largest government department with over 90,000 employees who work to deliver vital services to millions of people, including benefits, pensions and employment support.
It is important the Civil Service is able to remunerate its staff in line with the private sector to attract and retain the best talent, as it delivers on the Government’s priorities to create opportunity and reform the welfare system.
It is important that people are paid for their work. But Peter Schofield’s salary last year was between £205,000 and £210,000. This rose from between £195,000 and £200,000 the year before. That’s more than enough “remuneration” without an extra 10k on top.
Staff bonuses whilst disabled people are penalised
It’s disgusting that so many people whose jobs are to make disabled and poor people’s lives hell are then being rewarded for that. It’s like saying “well done on kicking that sick scrounger off the benefits they need to stay alive!”
But it’s especially vile when you consider that the narrative being pushed by the department is that their expenditure is so high due to benefit fraud. £12.7 million is no drop in the ocean, especially from a department that claims the only way to save money is to cut benefits.
From April, new, disabled Universal Credit claimants who can’t work will receive half as much as current claimants. This means that instead of £429.80 a month, new claimants will get just £217.26. That’s a loss of £212.54 a month and £2550.48 a year. But hey at least they can afford to give their staff a nice cushy bonus.
If the DWP were so desperate to save money, staff bonuses would surely be the way to go. However, if you’re gonna do a job that vile, you’re not gonna do it without a decent financial incentive.
It just proves how fucking awful the DWP is that the only way they can keep staff is essentially through bribing them to stay.
Featured image via the Canary
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