Sophie Dean
Biography
Sophie Dean was appointed Director General for Welfare and Pensions in September 2025. Before that, she was in a jobshare with Katherine Green as joint Directors General for DWP Policy.
Before DWP, Sophie and Katherine were Directors General for Borders and Trade in HMRC. They were responsible for policy and operation of the UK border for goods and delivered the major border change programme for Brexit. Sophie and Katherine joined HMRC in August 2018 as job share Directors of Customs and Border Design.
Sophie was previously Finance Director at HM Treasury. Prior to that she worked in a variety of policy roles in HM Treasury.
Before joining the Civil Service, Sophie worked in the private sector. She has 3 boys and a poorly trained red fox Labrador.
Director General for Welfare and Pensions
The Director General for Welfare and Pensions is responsible for:
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Poverty strategy, including departmental poverty policy and the Child Poverty Taskforce
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Families, Child Maintenance and Disadvantaged Groups policy
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Development and implementation of strategy and policy to improve outcomes for people receiving support from the social security system - particularly disabled people, people with health conditions, pensioners and savers
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Leading DWP outcomes on health and disability and later life
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The Government’s overall social security system and welfare strategy, including DWP’s Annual Managed Expenditure position
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Universal Credit policy and analysis, including Universal Credit Policy Review, Housing policy and analysis, and Carers policy and analysis
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Oversight of key arm’s length bodies, including the Health and Safety Executive, Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Pensions Regulator, Pension Protection Fund, and NEST
Previous roles in government
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Director General for Labour Market and Poverty (jobshare)