The government today faced the threat of a walkout at jobcentres across the country, as a union begins balloting its members on a two-day strike.
Some 90,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union are expected to vote in favour of the walkout next month.
The PCS warned that jobcentres, benefit offices and pension centres were facing "meltdown" because of the loss of 14,200 jobs from the Department of Work and Pensions in the past 18 months, under plans to cut the size of the civil service.
Another 15,000 jobs are set to be axed in the in the next few years, but the union said services to the public, including those seeking a job or claiming benefits, had already deteriorated, with people waiting longer to see a jobs adviser or unable to get through to call centres to even arrange a meeting.
The move comes as about two million council workers in England and Wales could be balloted over controversial changes to their pensions.
Mark Serwotka, the union's general secretary, said there had been a 62% increase in assaults on jobcentre staff this year, while in some areas, including Sheffield, 80% of telephone calls were going unanswered because of staff shortages.
The union said it had been told that in one week in September fewer than half of calls to a centre dealing with jobcentres in London had been answered.
Mr Serwotka met the work and pensions secretary, John Hutton, last week, urging him to call a halt to the job cuts and launch a review, but the minister refused.
Mr Serwotka said: "The cuts have left an incredible stress on people and they are not able to cope. The problem is being made worse because under a draconian application of sickness absence policy, people are being sacked for being off work with stress.
"Our members will not stand idly by and watch the services they deliver to some of the most disadvantaged in society being damaged by crude job cuts.
"We have no option but to ballot for a strike because staff are being treated in the most disgraceful way".
The union said one of its members in Sheffield had resigned his job after being forced to turn away two benefit claimants who said they had not eaten for three days.
Mr Serwotka warned that the dispute could spread to other Whitehall departments where jobs were being cut, and said strikes could be co-ordinated with any action taken by local government workers. A DWP spokeswoman said strike action would not help benefit claimants. She added that while staff numbers at the department were falling, it was increasing the number of workers delivering services to the public.
