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

[Sunsnet]

I currently work a minimum wage job in retail. It's long hours, exhausting and for really shitty money. Sometimes I earn less than minimum wage as I'm salaried and not entitled to overtime.

I've just been offered a job with the DWP. I'll earn 50% more, have a WAY better pension plus more benefits. I'll even be able to work fewer hours so I can spend more time with my family and STILL be better off than now. BUT, I have friends who think the DWP is immoral and by working for them I will be implicit in that immorality.

I agree that the way the DWP works at the moment is immoral, but surely we need good people to work there to ensure that people who need the help and are entitled to it actually get it. Or am I just clutching at straws to justify my position?

I have one friend in particular who says they will never speak to me again if I take the job. This friend is independently wealthy and never needs to work again, I am not. I do not own property, have a family to support, I'm a single parent and I have no qualifications so have no hope of a better job.

Would I really be that awful a person to sell out and take this job?

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.

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

Again someone making huge assumptions about what the job is.

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!

Your friends are fucking batshit.

Take the job.

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!

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 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.

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

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

Op never came back.

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.

Give her a chance, she may have been working.

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.

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.

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

YANBU OP take the job and find better 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.

Take the job
If anyone asks say you work in admin for local government.

Your family, wellbeing & long term future are worth doing it for.

Congratulations on getting the job offer. It is a great step up for you and your children and I hope you will ignore silly people who call themselves your friends but haven't one ounce of compassion or concern for you. Be happy to wave them goodbye for trying to burden you with their fake morality.

There is nothing immoral about administering government policy and I hope you will seize the opportunity with both hands and enjoy an easier and better life with your children. Onwards and upwards.

I work for DWP and my colleagues and I try to help people as much as we can within the system set up by the Government. If we can't help or offer solutions we signpost to organisations that can. We try to help people navigate the complexities of the benefits system. We do not set out to make people suffer or descend further into poverty

Our customers have very challenging circumstances and issues that we do not have the authority or budgets to solve

I have one friend in particular who says they will never speak to me again if I take the job.

Will the wealthy friend be offering to make up your potential extra income lost if you don't take the job?

I’ve not rtft but not seen anything suggesting the friend is male. Happy to be proved wrong

Unless this friend is offering the uplift in your salary from her own pocket each month until you retire then she can keep her nose out of it

There’s an election coming, take the job and use the cover and maybe try to move departments in a year or two.