According to a report by the National Audit Office, the Department for Work and Pensions "will have to make rapid progress in reorganising the way it operates if it is to meet its target of cutting costs by £20 billion in four years while achieving substantial reform of the welfare system."
The 2010 Spending Review envisions the DWP saving £2.67bn in running costs and £16.96bn in cuts to benefits and pensions by 2014-15. As well as attacks on benefits, the indications are clear that the government intends to cut jobs in the DWP. The civil service union PCS should be gearing up for a serious fight, linking together the attacks on its members' jobs, pay and pensions and with claimants groups opposing the assault on benefits. The track record of its Socialist Party leadership suggests that it will do neither in the absence of large-scale pressure from the union's rank-and-file activists.
