Some 90,000 staff in Jobcentres and benefit offices in England, Wales and Scotland will walk out for 48 hours in an increasingly acrimonious dispute over pay.
They will be joined by 4,500 workers from the prison service in England and Wales in a separate wage dispute which could disrupt the transfer of prisoners, and by 1,500 workers from the Office of National Statistics who will stage a 24-hour strike - the first in the office's history.
The industrial action comes less than two months after 90,000 staff from the Department for Work and Pensions went on strike, leading the closure of some Jobcentres and benefit offices.
The DWP workers are opposed to the imposition of a new pay performance structure. They argue it is does little to address the growing problem of low wages for many civil servants.
Starting salaries for all three departments range from £10,300 to £10,575, and the Public and Commercial Services Union, which is organising the strike, says more than 20,000 staff in the DWP have to claim the same low pay benefits they administer.
The union has warned it will take the DWP to the high court unless it withdraws the scheme, arguing its "unilateral imposition" was a breach of contract.
Managers in the department have said they have offered workers a substantial pay deal worth an average 5% aimed at junior and the worst-paid staff, but the union insists it is worth 2.9%.
Mark Serwotka, the union's general secretary, said yesterday: "Rather than try to find compromise with its workforce, senior management prefer the bully-boy tactics of imposing divisive bonus schemes and real term pay cuts."
