Officials of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union voted for a strike ballot in protest over a 2.6% pay rise.
The decision will have to be ratified by the union's disputes committee but around 90,000 civil servants now look set to vote on industrial action.
Union leaders warned that a two-day strike could be held at the end of January followed by further industrial action unless the dispute was settled.
Several hundred Jobcentre and benefit office workers in Glasgow and Essex staged unofficial strikes last week in protest at the 2.6% rise being imposed by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Union members overwhelmingly rejected the offer in a ballot that was still being held as the department decided to impose the 2.6% increase.
Stella Dennis, president of the union's Department for Work and Pensions group, accused management of "bullyboy tactics".
The union's dispute committee will meet next week and is expected to agree to holding a ballot. Union officials warned that any industrial action could be coordinated to include possible action by civil servants at the Home Office and prisons service.
