Our overview of the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) examines its spending and performance. It brings together insights from our reports and other publicly available sources including the DWP’s annual report and accounts.

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Key takeaways

Financial management

£319.9 billion: The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has the largest expenditure of any government department. In 2025-26, its total expenditure was £319.9 billion, an increase of 7% compared with 2024-25 (£298.0 billion). Most of DWP’s expenditure relates to pension and benefit payments – £311.2 billion in 2025-26.

£9.9 billion: DWP estimates that it overpaid 3.2% (£9.9 billion) of benefit expenditure in 2025-26. This was slightly lower than in 2024-25 when the overpayment rate was 3.3% (£9.4 billion). The C&AG qualified his opinion on the regularity of DWP’s accounts for 2025-26 due to the material level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure (excluding State Pension). Universal Credit accounted for over two-thirds of overpayments by value (£6.7 billion) in 2025-26.

£4.9 billion: DWP estimates that, in 2025-26, claimants received £4.9 billion (1.6% of benefit expenditure) less than they were eligible for. Official error underpayments accounted for £1.2 billion, while unfulfilled eligibility accounted for £3.7 billion. The highest rates of unfulfilled eligibility were for disability benefits.

Productivity

£533 million: Over the past two years, DWP has reported £533 million in efficiencies. In 2024-25, DWP reported it had identified £347 million in efficiencies against its Spending Review baseline, exceeding its target of £270 million. In 2025-26, DWP reported a further £186 million in efficiencies against its 2024-25 baseline, exceeding its target of £170 million.

£4.9 billion: DWP’s total staff costs were £4.9 billion in 2025-26, a 10% increase from 2024-25, when staff costs were £4.5 billion. At 31 March 2026, the DWP group had just over 89,000 full-time equivalent staff.

£625 million: We reported on the government’s progress since it launched an initial £625 million funding package for up to 60,000 more skilled construction workers by 2029. DWP is responsible for several relevant initiatives, including Skills Bootcamps which are estimated to contribute 15,900 additional workers.

Risk and resilience

14 risk themes: DWP had 14 risk themes at 31 March 2026. It rated four of these as high: those relating to cyber security; data strategy and ownership; legacy and emerging technologies; and strategic transformation programmes.

3 major projects: At April 2026, DWP had three projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio: the Health Transformation Programme; the Service Modernisation Programme; and the Synergy shared services programme.

480 staff: We reported on DWP’s operation of the Access to Work scheme, including its announcement in May 2026 that it would recruit an additional 480 staff to help clear the backlog of applications by September 2027. Access to Work is a demand-led grant scheme to help people get, or stay in, work if they have a physical or mental health condition or disability.

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