To take a job with the DWP even though I will lose friends

I had to Google DWP to see if they were produces of mass weapons or something. Fuck that OP. Take the job! Congratulations. Anyone who objects to the prospect of a better lifestyle for you and your family is not a true friend. I've had friends work everywhere from the police to those scientific testing places that test products on animals... Don't agree with those organisations (especially the last one!!), but I understood that my friends were just trying to get on with their career and lives. I've worked for places I don't consider to be ethical, either.

YANBU OP take the job and find better friends.

Just take the job. Those friends sound a bit nutty.

This has to be a joke surely?

well I guess me and all my friends are immortal people who applied to work in the civil service and just so happened to get given a job in child maintenance or benefit’s.

ffs it’s a job. No one is sitting there fucking laughing at people on benefits, we all just wanna get paid and go home to our families.

The thing is, civil servants have to operate within legislation. However, they can still be human and do their best for their customers so people with moral and ethical stances should join workforces like the DWP where they can try to make a difference rather than stay outside of such roles and criticise.

Give her a chance, she may have been working.

If your wealthy friend insists you don't take this job, ask if they'll make up for the salary and pension that you will lose by complying with their wishes.

Op never came back.

Quite. I wouldn't even start a friendship with someone so divorced from reality as to post such simplistic tripe.

What's the job? I'm looking for something more stable and it seems don't need many skills or experience?

Well Jasmin has a bit of a point, really. The perks sounds great and I wouldn’t blame you for taking it, of course not, but equally, if you find the way they operate goes against your values, could you work for them? If you’re a PIP decision maker, for instance, and your superior asks you to deduct points so a person is no longer entitled, even though you have moral objections, could you do it? Not sure I could, and I’ve known people to leave the job because it goes against their morals. Maybe accept the job and see what you think though? I think you should try and see for yourself what it’s like and what it entails, I guess there’s hundreds of different roles.

I’ve just been a horrible battle to get PIP after they basically accused me of lying twice and twisted everything I said to get out of paying. I went to an independent tribunal and got the award with flying colours within 20 minutes.

Take the job!

Take all of the opportunities for training that come your way, this is your ticket to get those 'qualifications' as you mentioned.

It will be easier to sidestep into other areas of government within a few years.

Shame about the friends. Tell them to go work a week in your retail shoes and then come back to you. Hey-ho.

Well, if there was no DWP, I wouldn't be getting a pension and disability support.

I certainly dislike its current ethos, but I'd rather there was a DWP than not.

Congratulations on the new job!

Your friends are fucking batshit.

Take the job.

I think they're not actually friends if that's the opinion they have.

I'm a civil servant and have worked for HMRC and DWP - was absolutely nothing to do with dealing with customers/administering benefits/making decisions etc. in either but that's immediately what everyone thinks of. DWP is a huge organisation - yes the policies etc. can be awful however it is not up to the individual staff and the majority do the best they can within the parameters they're set. Obviously there are bad eggs in all organisations and I imagine some of the jobs do wear you down after a time but it's really boring to hear people who are privileged enough to have the choice to put down those who work in DWP/HMRC/wherever else. If there were no staff working there then you'd soon know about it!

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

Again someone making huge assumptions about what the job is.

Definitely take the job. It will make a huge difference to you and your family to have a better paid, (hopefully) secure job, which hopefully you will also enjoy!
Good luck.

I used to work in the DWP assessing claims for ESA. I’m now a social worker. Two jobs that people have strong opinions about. I’ve not lost one friend over either of my jobs choices.

Your friends are weird and not actually friends at all if they wouldn’t speak to you for taking a better job.

Civil service jobs are almost always a job for life. There’s room to manoeuvre and work your way up as well. The benefits are not bad and the money isn’t terrible either.

The only thing I would say is your idea about change from the inside is way off the mark. it’s a nice idea but you as a worker won’t be able to exact much change at all except be polite and empathetic to the people you may need to speak to and treat them as human beings. Something the government has forgotten along the way while they’ve been making their “policies” that hurt the most vulnerable in society.

I would tell your “friends” to fuck off and enjoy your new job and the better life it will bring for you and your family.

As someone who worked for DWp (in its many guises) for 40 years and who now collects a healthy pension from them, I'm torn about your question.

the pension was great when I retired (based on end of service salary) but not so good now, it's based on average service salary. But still better than some.

And the work appears to me to have got worse. If the work, in particular, is with JCP. Too many difficult targets (such as sanctioning x number of people per week) and the delays the system seems to create in payment, for sometimes desperate people who don't know how they will feed their family that week. Who do you think those desperate people kick off on?

when I worked for them, I received a computer output every week telling me what % of new claims were paid in the period 1 to 6 days, of their claim and those that were not paid within that limit. And the % of the 6days plus was so small that I could ask each supervisor in my office (the largest office outside london) which claimant was over six days and they would know why.

now I hear that people wait up to six weeks + for payment.

I wouldn't want to be the person who told a claimant it would be a while before their children were fed by them.

but sometimes needs must. So if you have to do.It to help your family, fine. If you have a decent job already, think twice.

Take the job. Your friends sound insane BTW. Dump the lot of them is my advice.

Take it. Financial and job security are way more important than an opinion. Congrats on the job!

Take the job, but you won't change the system, and if you think you'll personally be able to, you'll be miserable. Work with it the best you can, and give the better quality of life to your family

How is working for a public service immoral?

Do all your friends do frontline jobs for the NHS? Or give their services free of charge to underfunded women’s refuges? Or spend their free time cleaning animal shelters?

If so, tell them they are wonderful people. If not, tell them to stick their opinions where the sun don’t shine.

As for the rich friend who doesn’t have to work, I can’t believe this parasite has the cheek to object to anyone’s job!

Definitely take the job!
Many people gain experience in a multitude of unpopular jobs and the civil service people move between departments.

Just get used to saying your a civil servant if people ask rather then going into detail.

My career isn't popular with some of DHs school friends I used to try and explain my Jon now I can't be arsed and either change the subject or respond with and....they usually stop quickly after that.