DWP

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is one of the UK's largest government departments, responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. It administers the benefits system, state pension, Universal credit, and employment support programmes, making it the primary interface between government and millions of working-age and retired people. DWP also runs Jobcentre Plus, the national network of employment support offices.

On 18 May 2026, DWP joined a new cross-government AI and Future of Work Unit launched inside DSIT by Liz Kendall, with a target to upskill 10 million people across the UK workforce by 2030, with SMEs as the priority cohort. DWP's involvement is structurally significant: it connects the upskilling ambition to the benefits and employment support system, creating a potential channel through which AI-displaced workers can access retraining before reaching the safety net, rather than after.

For UK AI policy, DWP's participation in the unit signals that the government is treating AI workforce disruption as a labour-market issue requiring cross-departmental coordination, not solely a skills or technology problem owned by DSIT alone. This matters for companies like Multiverse, whose $70m Series E two days later explicitly targeted the workforce upskilling market the unit is designed to activate. It also raises the political stakes: DWP's involvement means AI Job Displacement is now linked to welfare expenditure projections as well as technology ambition.