HUNDREDS of civil servants across Kirklees and Calderdale fear they could lose their jobs.
The Department of Work and Pensions this week announced a massive programme of centralisation, to move benefits processing work into fewer regional offices.
Nationally, 30,000 jobs could be lost.
Now, unions fear that in Huddersfield and Halifax that could mean up to 300 redundancies.
The Public and Commercial Services Union, the country's biggest civil service union, has vowed to oppose the plans.
A DWP spokesman said that while processing work was being concentrated in 100 sites instead of 650, this did not mean the affected offices would all close.
Charles Law , the PCS liaison officer for Yorkshire, said: "It's a major concern. They want to lose 30,000 jobs across the department by 2008. There are about 110 district offices, including the ones in Kirklees and Calderdale.
"We fear 300 jobs are likely to be going there," he added.
"From our point of view the reason they are trying to do this is that they're trying to make huge savings on jobs."
The DWP said eight pension centres would be taken over by other parts of the department. Large centres at York and Liverpool face closure.
Sir Richard Mottram, the DWP's Permanent Secretary, said the department was committed to one of the largest change programmes in Europe over the next four years, which would inevitably be unsettling for staff.
Andrew Smith, the Government's Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said any job losses would be regrettable.
