The civil service's biggest trade union has urged chancellor Philip Hammond to ditch the £3.5bn in extra Whitehall cuts outlined by his predecessor, George Osborne.
The Treasury announced this week that its multibillion-pound efficiency review, originally ordered by Osborne in his 2016 Budget and reaffirmed by Hammond at last year's Autumn Statement, would be met by asking departments to draw up plans for additional cuts of up to 6%.
Those savings come on top of already-tough settlements agreed by departments at the 2015 Spending Review, and the targets were outlined as a joint report by the Institute for Government and accountancy body CIPFA warned the Treasury not to ignore “mounting pressure in public services” including in adult social care, prisons and hospitals.
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PCS, which represents rank-and-file members of the organisation, has now estimated that further cuts of 6% to departmental budgets could result in the civil service shedding some 25,000 more jobs, pointing out that staffing costs make up a significant chunk of spending.
The union's general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “More than six years of Tory austerity has meant pay cuts and job losses for tens of thousands of public servants and wrecked services we all rely on.
“The chancellor must use the upcoming Budget to reverse George Osborne’s failed plan, end the job cuts and lift the pay cap to put money back in people’s pockets and improve living standards.”
Hammond has already provided some wiggle room on the figure laid down by Osborne, saying "up to £1bn" of the £3.5bn saved through the efficiency review will be "reinvested in priority areas".
But this week's statement provided no further detail on what that will mean in practice, or whether departments themselves will be able to keep hold of the money to reinvest in 2019/20. The statement did, however, appear to rule out using this money to boost social care funding, saying "efficiencies found within local government will be used to help meet existing pressures".
Chief secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said the government was "committed to a modern, high-quality public sector that delivers the services people need in the most efficient way possible".
He added: "There has been considerable progress, but there is further to go and the whole of government is working together to consider how we can live within our means while delivering maximum value for every pound of taxpayers money."
An update on the efficiency review is expected in the autumn.