‘Golden goodbye’ payouts to civil servants have soared despite promises of a crackdown, figures have revealed.
A total of £134million in exit packages were lavished on departing officials at seven Whitehall departments last year, an audit found.
This is up from £92.6million at the same departments the year before – a jump of 45 per cent.
The figure includes £14million for officials at the Department for Work and Pensions, which is stripping pensioners of their cold weather fuel payments this winter.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) blew £22.6million on ‘golden goodbyes’ for 591 staff – an almost 500 per cent rise on the £4million it spent the year before.
A total of £134million in exit packages were lavished on departing officials at seven Whitehall departments last year
This is up from £92.6million at the same departments the year before – a jump of 45 per cent
One of its bureaucrats received an exit package worth between £350,000 and £400,000. It comes after claims that soldiers, who start on salaries of about £25,000, are being forced to go without vital kit and live in mould-infested homes.
Last year, the Treasury promised a crackdown on bumper severance payments and to make the process more ‘rigorous’.
The payout figures come as many civil servants continue to refuse to go into the office for more than a day or two a week. Instead, they are being allowed to work from home the rest of the time.
The previous Conservative government told officials to spend at least 60 per cent of their time in the office.
Labour has so far refused to lay out a policy on the issue and some Cabinet ministers have suggested they will relax the requirement.
The audit, carried out by pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, found that, in total, of the seven Government departments which have published accounts, £134.5million worth of exit packages were spent on civil servants and officials at taxpayer-funded bodies linked to them, such as quangos.
This means payouts were on average £44,611, up from £41,259 the year before. Eighty-eight were over £100,000, including 13 that were more than £150,000.
Less than half of government departments have published their accounts for last year so the overall figure will be much higher.
The audit relates to staff who left the Home Office, Treasury and Foreign Office as well as the Work and Pensions, Education, Defence and Transport departments, along with publicly-funded bodies linked to them.
In total, 11 officials at the cash-strapped MoD left with six-figure exit payouts, including three for more than £150,000. It refused to say who got the payout for up to £400,000.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month that 10million pensioners would lose their cold weather payments from this winter
The audit figures also show that the number of civil servants grew by 23,060 to 542,840 last year
Its payout bill was second only to the Department of Transport, which handed out £80million to 1,593 staff, compared to £38million spent the year before. It includes 70 six-figure severance packages, with nine worth over £150,000.
Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann, who served in David Cameron’s government, said: ‘These kind of payments will stick in the craw of pensioners trying to survive on tiny amounts of money and seeing people who not only will have the state pension, but also a nice public sector pension on top, who don’t seem to understand the hardship that this kind of decision to take away winter fuel payments is inflicting on pensioners.’
Dennis Reed, from campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘It compounds the feeling that we’re at the very bottom of the list in terms of political priorities.’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month that 10million pensioners would lose their cold weather payments from this winter, which are worth up to £300 a year. She said this is necessary to help fill a £22billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances which she claims was left by the Conservative government.
The audit figures also show that the number of civil servants grew by 23,060 to 542,840 last year, while the number on salaries of £100,000 or more increased from 2,045 to 2,915. This is despite efforts by the Conservatives to reduce the civil service headcount.
Elliot Keck, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which has been calling for a £95,000 cap on civil service exit payments, said: ‘Taxpayers are fed up with seeing their own budgets stretched while pen-pushers are laughing all the way to the bank.’ Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘At a time of difficulty and hardship for everyone struggling with the cost of living, this seems like a surprising use of taxpayers’ money.
‘The new government should review the scale of these exit payments with a view to capping them lower than they currently are.’
A spokesman for the Government said: ‘The Chancellor has been clear she will bear down on waste and improve efficiency after inheriting a £22billion black hole in the public finances from the previous Government.
‘That includes civil servant exit payments. Exit payments are usually determined by a person’s contractual rights and, for exceptional cases, there is a robust scrutiny process.’
