Ministers planning to cut civil servant redundancy pay at same time as 91,000 jobs

The proposed changes come on top of existing civil service anger over pay increases less than half the current rate of inflation. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Ministers are planning to reduce redundancy pay for civil servants while cutting 91,000 Whitehall jobs, setting up a bitter confrontation that unions warned may lead to legal and industrial action.

The proposals could result in average packages being cut by a quarter at a time when the minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, Jacob Rees-Mogg, is aiming to shrink the civil service by a fifth.