Employees who were facing being made unemployed tomorrow without redundancy, have been given a potential lifeline following the intervention of Toby Perkins, their MP.

The staff, who are employed by DXC and work at the Department for Work and Pensions have been given a two-week contract extension, whilst DWP & DXC continue to discuss the employment status of the workers.

The employees who work for IT firm DXC providing services for the Department of Work and Pensions in Sheffield are in peril because from 11^th August, the contract between DXC and DWP is coming to an end and responsibility for employing the staff is being denied by both their employer DXC and the firm who the work will be with DWP.

Toby Perkins said, “I welcome this extension and hope that this issue can be quickly resolved so that these workers can stay in their jobs which assist disabled employees.

It seems to me that these jobs should be transferred back into the public sector and I had another meeting today with senior civil servants at the DWP and a government minister to push for this on behalf of DXC staff. The way this has been handled has been shambolic and the uncertainty and lack of communication with these workers has caused a great deal of stress and upset. I have also suggested that both legal teams meet up and try to reach a resolution as soon as possible, rather than let this go to a lengthy legal battle, that would leave these eight workers without jobs or redundancy, and potentially cost the taxpayer a lot of money in legal fees.”