THE Department for Work and Pensions office in Warrington is among many across the country set to close.

The closure of 41 DWP sites in the UK is due to place more than 1,100 jobs at risk, while the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said thousands more staff are at risk of redundancy.

This could occur when other sites are transferred to new premises by June 2023.

It is believed that the Warrington office, located at Hilden House in the town centre, is one of the sites closing with an alternative offered for staff.

DWP minister David Rutley told MPs that meetings were being held with affected staff on Thursday.

He said “There are going to be around 12,000 colleagues who will be moving from one site to another in close proximity – around 28 sites involved there.

“In terms of colleagues that will be affected where there is no other strategic site nearby, there are around 1,300 colleagues that could be involved.”

Mr Rutley added that the Government will ‘see what opportunities there are within DWP’ and other departments for affected staff and added that the change ‘does not impact job centres and the customer-facing interactions’.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The Government was quick to clap civil servants at the start of the pandemic – they are even quicker to scrap them now they have declared the pandemic over.

“Our members have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, keeping the country running, paying out benefits to almost two-and-a-half million families, helping them to put food on their table and keep a roof over their head.

“These are the workers rightly praised in 2020 by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Therese Coffey as ‘exceptional’ and in November last year by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as ‘miracle workers’.

“But now, as food and fuel prices rise faster than ever, they are being abandoned by the Government and left to fend for themselves.”

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Ministers are today cutting quality public sector jobs from communities who need them in the middle of a devastating cost-of-living crisis.”

A Government spokesman said: “As part of plans to improve the services we deliver to claimants, help more people into employment and modernise public services, DWP is moving some back office staff to better, greener offices, which will not affect any public-facing roles.

“This is not a plan to reduce our headcount – where possible, our colleagues in offices due to close are being offered opportunities to be redeployed to a nearby site, or retrained into a new role in DWP or another government department.

“We are making every effort to fully support our staff through this process.”