The Department for Work and Pensions (or DWP) (Welsh: Adran Gwaith a Phensiynau) is the largest government department in the Government of the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001, from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security. It is currently headed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a Cabinet positionThe Permanent Secretary is Sir Leigh Lewis KCB. In November 2005, he replaced Sir Richard Mottram, who moved to the Cabinet Office. Mottram had moved in 2002 from the same post at the Department for Transport to succeed Rachel Lomax, who had followed the opposite route and who then moved to the Bank of England as deputy governor in 2003. Lesley Strathie, director of Jobcentre Plus also holds the rank of permanent secretary at DWP.
The department's central administrative office is in Whitehall, London. There are a number of other regional offices and Jobcentres where members of the public can visit to find out information. The Pension Service has 133 specialised teams across the country called Local Service, who can visit pensioners in their homes if this is preferred.
The department's annual "expenditure limit" (budget) figures are, at the time of the 2004 Spending Review: 2004-05: £8,164m, 05-06: £8,432m, 06-07: £8,212m and 07-08: £8,105m.
The DWP employed (in 2003) 131,000 members of staff to discharge all of its functions. This figure will be reduced by 30,000 by 2008, with a further 10,000 being moved to front-line services. This is part of the Government's pledge to reduce civil servant numbers by 100,000. Nevertheless, the department is still the largest (in staffing terms) Whitehall department.
