The Treasury shared its response to the consultation on public sector exit payments with the media before talking to unions who represent the thousands of affected public servants.

Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said: “Announcing the consultation outcome in the week before the Conservative party conference is no coincidence. The government is throwing some red meat to those on the right of the Party to distract them from wider challenges.

Speaking on behalf of 27,000 professionals, managers and specialists in the civil service and related organisations, he added: “The government looks set to ignore the vast majority of those who responded to the consultation and peddle tired old myths about fat cats and rewards for failure.

“In reality, the Treasury proposals will hit some of the lowest-paid and longest-serving public servants hardest.”

Prospect and three other unions, as well as the Defence Police Federation, are expecting a final offer on severance terms for the civil service shortly, as part of a separate consultation.

Prospect has negotiated hard with the Cabinet Office on these proposals over the past six months, said Graham.

“Our executive will meet later this week to consider the Cabinet Office’s proposals. We believe these will be a significant improvement on those set out in the Treasury framework and the initial Cabinet Office consultation document.

“However we will ballot members on any final proposals and our executive will decide whether we can recommend them to members for acceptance.

“Whatever the executive’s recommendation, our members in the civil service and the wider public sector are rightly angry that the government is using employees’ severance terms as a political football and has seen fit to renege on agreements negotiated with the unions in 2010.

He assured members: “We will be engaging with employers and negotiating hard on your behalf over the coming months.”