The biggest action involved 90,000 workers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in England, Wales and Scotland.
However, a DWP spokesman attempted to play down the impact of the industrial action, saying the indications were that fewer offices were closed today than had been during a previous strike in February, and that there was less disruption.
A spokeswoman said that seven Jobcentre offices in London were closed because of the strike, compared with 16 during February's walkout.
The DWP workers were joined in a 48-hour strike by 4,500 administration and support workers at the prison service in England and Wales, which it was thought could disrupt the transfer of prisoners.
Meanwhile 1,700 workers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in London, Newport, South Wales, Southport and Titchfield, Hampshire, were staging a 24-hour strike, the first action in the history of the government's statistical service.
The walkouts were prompted by separate deadlocked disputes over pay.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents the strikers, was today touring picket lines across London. He repeated his call for ministers to intervene in the increasingly bitter disputes.
Mr Serwotka said that civil servants were fed up with being "underpaid and undervalued".
"Rather than attempt to find a compromise with its workforce to deal with the issue of low pay, senior management prefer the bully-boy tactics of imposing divisive bonus schemes and real-term pay cuts," he said.
"Unfortunately there will be disruption to the public today, but if anyone is going to point the finger, don't point it at the thousands of low paid public servants, but at the senior managers on six-figure salaries."
Mr Serwotka revealed that the union was threatening to take the DWP to the high court unless it withdrew a controversial pay performance system, arguing that it was a breach of contract.
The DWP dispute, over a pay deal which was due to be settled last July, has been rumbling for months.
However, the shadow work and pensions secretary, David Willetts, said that industrial action by DWP workers was not the right course of action, and that the disruption caused to the public was "most unwelcome".
He added: "However, today's strike raises questions about the government's ability to deliver the efficiency savings it has promised.
"We already know they have made a mess of their new IT projects. They haven't cut any posts in the past two years, despite promising this back in 2002. Pay rates for staff are under pressure as well.
"This strike tells us that the department is not succeeding at getting a grip on its overhead costs."
Meanwhile, it was announced today that prison staff belonging to another union are to vote on strike action in a separate pay dispute.
Amicus, which represents 1,500 engineers, electricians and other industrial staff in England and Wales, said that a 1% pay increase had been imposed on its members.
The ballot will be the first to be taken among Amicus members in prisons for 25 years.
