Department for Work and Pensions

United Kingdom

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The Department for Work and Pensions (or DWP) (Welsh: Adran Gwaith a Phensiynau) is the largest government department in the Government of the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security. It is currently headed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a Cabinet position.

Vision and strategy

The vision of the Department is to:

• contribute towards fair, safe and fulfilling lives, free from poverty for children, people in work and retirement, disabled people and carers;
• reduce welfare dependency and increase economic competitiveness by helping people to work wherever they can and helping employers to secure the skills and employees they need; and
• provide greater choice and personalisation and higher quality of service for customers where it is in their interests and those of the taxpayers. ^[1]

Ministerial team

See ^[2]

• Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - Yvette Cooper MP
  • Minister of State for Pensions and the Ageing Society - Angela Eagle MP
  • Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform - Jim Knight MP (attends cabinet when responsibility is on agenda)
    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State - Lord McKenzie of Luton (jointly with DCLG)
    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State - Helen Goodman MP
    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People - Jonathan Shaw MP

The Permanent Secretary is Sir Leigh Lewis KCB. In November 2005, he replaced Sir Richard Mottram, who moved to the Cabinet Office. Mottram had moved in 2002 from the same post at the Department for Transport to succeed Rachel Lomax, who had followed the opposite route and who then moved to the Bank of England as deputy governor in 2003.

Shadow Secretaries

The Conservative Party's Shadow Secretary of State is Theresa May MP.^[3] The Liberal Democrat spokesman is Steve Webb MP.^[4]

Services

The Department for Work and Pensions has two operational organisations:

• Jobcentre Plus, a service dedicated to helping people back into work and administering related and other, Social Security benefits (Jobseeker's Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance, Bereavement Benefits, Maternity Allowance, Industrial Injuries Benefits, Social Fund).
• The Pension, Disability and Carers Service containing two sub-organisations, The Pension Service and Disability and Carers Service. The former facilitating the state pension and Pension Credit systems and providing information on other related issues and the latter providing financial and practical support to disabled people and their carers^[5].

The department has responsibility for the Health and Safety Executive, Directgov and the Employment Medical Advisory Service and the personal accounts delivery authority (PADA)

The majority of the remainder of the staff employed in the department work for DWP Corporate and Shared Services. These cover areas such as Debt Management, Human Resources (Employee Shared Services), Contracting and Corporate IT.

Location and staffing

DWP buildings at Quarry Hill, Leeds (known locally as 'The Pink Palace' and 'The Kremlin')

The department's central administrative office is in Whitehall, London. There are a number of other regional offices and Jobcentres where members of the public can visit to find out information. The Pension Service has 133 specialised teams across the country called Local Service, who can visit pensioners in their homes if required.

The department's annual "expenditure limit" (budget) figures are, at the time of the 2004 Spending Review: 2004-05: £8,164m, 05-06: £8,432m, 06-07: £8,212m and 07-08: £8,105m.^{[citation needed]}

The DWP employed (in 2003) 131,000 members of staff to discharge all of its functions. This figure will be reduced by 30,000 by 2008, with a further 10,000 being moved to front-line services. This is part of the Government's pledge to reduce civil servant numbers by 100,000. Nevertheless, the department is still the largest (in staffing terms) Whitehall department.

See also

• Pensions Commission
• Office of Manpower Economics
• United Kingdom budget
• Benefit fraud
• Welfare Rights

References

External links

• Department for Work and Pensions website
• Directgov disabled people - Part of Department for Work and Pensions

Video clips

• DWP YouTube channel

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