Further Strike Action in DWP Lincoln announced
Following the current two weeks of strike action, members will strike again from 1 December until 2 January 2026 against the closure of their office.
Today marks the end of the first two-week period of strike action in Lincoln. Over 80 members of staff are currently at serious risk of redundancy as a result of the planned closure of the Service Centre in May 2026. The majority of staff are low paid AOs with very little prospect of being able to relocate into other DWP or other civil service jobs.
Members have magnificently supported the strike action with vibrant picket lines which have been shown excellent solidarity by Jobcentre staff in the same building, local authority workers, with the PCS DWP GEC, reps from neighbouring branches, and other trade union activists from Lincoln supporting the picket line.
Despite meeting with the DWP and raising members' concerns about the difficulties they are facing in finding redeployment either inside or outside the DWP the DWP are still insisting that the decision to close Lincoln Service Centre or find suitable alternative accommodation in Lincoln cannot be reversed.
When meeting the DWP, PCS explained that members had made a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much the DWP were paying Lincoln City Council in rent. By our calculations the amount of compensation it would take to make staff in Lincoln voluntarily redundant would cost the DWP as much as it would to pay for the rental on the premises for over 16 years. One of the key arguments that DWP have peddled throughout discussions is that their rationale for closing offices is cost. On the basis of what they might have to pay in redundancy payments this is clearly not true.
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