Civil Servants have been paid more than £128 million in bonuses over the past year, figures obtained by the Conservatives show.

 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) paid out £41 million to civilian staff and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) awarded £36 million.

 

The payments have been condemned as "rewards for failure" by the Conservatives, who pointed to a string of high-profile failures across government departments. But a Whitehall spokesman said the bonuses ensured that civil servants "go that extra mile".

 

More than £21 million was given out at the Treasury, including £19 million to staff at HM Revenue and Customs. Payouts by the DWP included £3.7?million to staff working at the Child Support Agency, even though it is being closed down.

 

The average bonus for senior staff was more than £7,000 while senior civil servants at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport pocketed an average of almost £11,000.

 

News of the MoD bonuses come just a month after the department was accused a "gold standard c**k-up" over the purchase of eight Chinook helicopters seven years ago. The aircraft are desperately needed in Afghanistan but are still sitting idle in hangars following a string of problems that have increased their cost to £422 million.

 

Source: Sunday Telegraph

I get a bonus of £100. Less tax.

 

Oh well, guess I'm not senior enough.... :angry:

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about over in the "strikes" thread..... People on the Minimal Wage being sh!t on while this bunch of incompetent fukk-ups award themselves these large bonuses.... The CSA has a bloody nerve especially.... Just out of curiosity is the HMRC another Dept awarding themselves big bonuses.....?

The Civil Servants today will play as significant a factor in the downfall of "New Labour", as the Left Wing unproductive Trade Unions in the 1970s caused the old Labour party to be unelectable for well over a decade.

 

This is entirely ex-Chancellor Gordon Brown's fault. As Alistair Brown's memoirs showed "Bottler Brown" effectively blackmailed Bliar into giving the Civil Servants what they wanted with their generous donations from the hard working tax payers, whilst those of us hard working people who work in the Private servicing industry are subsidising these unproductive political correct bureaucratic pen-pushing bast*rds.

 

Add to the fact that Gordon Brown stole from our Private Pension plans, and is responsible through his appalling handling of the UK economy, where most economists could see a mile off we were in no position to cope with a cyclical correction in the world economy....; the Labour Govt is responsible for this Political Correctness where householders can be threaten by chavs with knives, have their homes vandalised by these chavs who are untouchable to the law thanks to the European Children's Charter of 1998 (which even yesterday Esther Rantzen has condemned for encouraging a generation of teenagers who know their rights and know that they are above the law and she was responsible for the setting up of the Childline Charity FFS), yet if you went after them with some sort of "weapon" you will be charged by the Police & CPS....... and you can see that there is more chance of hell freezing over, than me voting for the Labour Party (which I have done every time since I've been eligible to vote) at the next General Election.

 

Suffice to say if the Etonian Blair clone Cameron was to say something to the effect and own up that Thatcher and Thatcherism was responsible for some very bad things, between now & the General Election, then my vote may even turn blue, something that was completely unthinkable 5 years ago.

the Labour Govt is responsible for this Political Correctness where householders can be threaten by chavs with knives, have their homes vandalised by these chavs who are untouchable to the law thanks to the European Children's Charter of 1998 (which even yesterday Esther Rantzen has condemned for encouraging a generation of teenagers who know their rights and know that they are above the law and she was responsible for the setting up of the Childline Charity FFS),

 

I completely agree with this actually... I'm Pro-European in most things, but this was just fukkin' STUPID, kids just do NOT have the sufficient level of maturity and psychological development to have the same level of rights as adults, in a lot of ways, kids are like dogs, if you let em get away with sh!t, they'll do sh!t, kids have no developed sense of superego, ie, an awareness of the world and others around them, to a kid everything has to revolve around them and their own gratification. The old saying "spare the rod and spoil the child" is as true now as it was 100 years ago.... This and the end of Corporal Punishment in schools and the end of parents being able to effectively discipline their kids through the occasional smack or clip round the ear (which is poles apart from battering them or child abuse...) to keep the little buggers in line has been responsible for much of the mayhem we now witness on our streets....

 

The years of selfishness and 'me, me, me' which Thatcherism brought hardly helped either.... If you ask me, she created Chav culture....

The Civil Servants today will play as significant a factor in the downfall of "New Labour", as the Left Wing unproductive Trade Unions in the 1970s caused the old Labour party to be unelectable for well over a decade.

 

This is entirely ex-Chancellor Gordon Brown's fault. As Alistair Brown's memoirs showed "Bottler Brown" effectively blackmailed Bliar into giving the Civil Servants what they wanted with their generous donations from the hard working tax payers, whilst those of us hard working people who work in the Private servicing industry are subsidising these unproductive political correct bureaucratic pen-pushing bast*rds.

 

 

What did the Civil Servants get from Broon? :unsure:

 

What did the Civil Servants get from Broon? :unsure:

 

The right to retire at 60, when everyone else works till they are 65+, or when they drop. Final salary inflation protected pensions, when everyone else's pension collapsed when Broon taxed them to the hilt. Not saying this is about you specifically, but this is the general perception of civil servants. When Blair wanted to extend it to 65+ like the rest of us the unions threatened all out strike. So Broon backed them, and left it alone.

 

So the rest of us will pay tax up to our 70's to allow civil servants to enjoy their retirememt at 60. Excuse me for being bitter about that. :angry:

The right to retire at 60, when everyone else works till they are 65+, or when they drop. Final salary inflation protected pensions, when everyone else's pension collapsed when Broon taxed them to the hilt. Not saying this is about you specifically, but this is the general perception of civil servants. When Blair wanted to extend it to 65+ like the rest of us the unions threatened all out strike. So Broon backed them, and left it alone.

 

So the rest of us will pay tax up to our 70's to allow civil servants to enjoy their retirememt at 60. Excuse me for being bitter about that. :angry:

 

Bri does have a point here Jupiter... But, to play devil's advocate, at least the civil service had the guts to threaten all-out strike to protect their rights and pensions, shame the rest of the country's workers didn;t.....

 

What's this 'right to retire at 60' gumph? We've got the same retirement age as everybody else. I need to work till 65 before I get my State Pension. My Work's pension (which I pay into each month btw) can be taken at 60 under current rules but that ain't going to be enough for me to live on. I'll be working till the same age as everyone else unless I win the lottery. For new staff who have joined since 2007 the Work's Pension isn't payable till 65.

 

There's this common mis-apprehension that we civil servants all stop work at 60 and live on fantastic pensions of £30,000 a year or something. If only!

 

And yes, existing staff who have been in the pension scheme before a certain date do still have a final salary scheme (but they've been trying to abolish that for years and who knows how long it will remain. It'll probably be gone long before I get to retirement age). We were always told that our Final Salary Scheme was compensation for the fact our wages were so $h!t.

 

Want a job in my Office? We're recruiting at the moment if you're interested. 37 hours a week. £12,000 a year. Form an orderly queue.

 

 

And another thing, if I hear one more person tell me that 'it's my taxes that keep you lot in a job' I'm going to blow a gasket. I pay taxes too you know! :angry:

Edited July 11, 200817 yr by Jupiter9

Just done a quick calculation. Having paid into the Civil Service Pension Scheme for 22 years my annual work's pension accrued so far would work out as £6,500 a year. Assuming I have 40 years service when I reach 60, my work's pension would work out as £11,000 a year.

 

The average salary for a Civil servant is approx £15,000 a year. With 40 years service they would receive a Work's pension of £7,500 a year. Oh yes, they'll all be retiring at 60 to live on £7,500 a year I don't think.

 

Don't believe everything you read in The Sun. :rolleyes:

And another thing, if I hear one more person tell me that 'it's my taxes that keep you lot in a job' I'm going to blow a gasket. I pay taxes too you know! :angry:

 

I never said my taxes are keeping you in a job, and I agree you should be earning more, but its the retirement pensions I object to paying for. I will have to work till I'm 65+ possibly 68, I have to pay 8% into my scheme, whereas most civil servants pay nothing or no more than 3 to 4% plus a large employers payment. So when most civil servants ( present company excepted) retire at 60 on an inflation protected pension. I will still be working and paying taxes up till I am 68, and my scheme doesn't get protected from the ravages of inflation. So by the time I retire I will have paid a fortune for next to nothing, which will reduce in real value each year.

 

Hope I die before I get old. :(

A ballot of civil service workers is likely to back significant changes in the sector's pension scheme.

 

Under the plans, new recruits will retire at 65, with their pension based on average earnings over their career rather than their final salary.

 

But, more than 600,000 existing members of the scheme can still retire at 60.

 

The two biggest unions - Prospect and the PCS - have recommended that members back the changes. The alterations were agreed after lengthy negotiations.

 

Voting for the union ballots closes later on Friday.

 

Question of age

 

The government originally proposed that all civil servants, who have a traditional final-salary pension scheme, should eventually have a retirement age of 65.

 

But, it backed down from this idea just before the last general election in the face of threatened industrial action by union members.

 

Union leaders are now happy with the changes, especially as existing civil servants who are in the scheme no longer face the possibility of working to 65.

 

"I have no hesitation in endorsing the recommendation for a 'yes' vote in the pensions ballot," said Prospect's general secretary Paul Noon, when the ballot started.

 

"Union negotiators have done an excellent job in securing a good deal for existing members as well as concluding the details of a good quality, indexed linked, defined benefit, whole career scheme for new entrants."

 

However, the government's eventual deal was criticised by Lord Turner, the chairman of its Pensions Commission.

 

In May, he said that keeping the civil service scheme in its present form for existing members was out of step with the government's plan to raise the state pension age to 68, in line with his own recommendations.

 

The deal

 

The new civil service scheme, to be called Nuvos, will come into effect for people who join from 1 August this year.

 

Its main features are:

 

* Staff contributions of 3.5% of salary

* A retirement age of 65

* A pension calculated on average career salary

* Faster build up of pensions - at a rate of 2.3% (1/43rd) of salary a year

* Continued inflation protection for pensions in payment

 

The changes to the civil service scheme are part of the government's plan to change most public service pension arrangements, including those for local government staff, NHS workers, teachers and firefighters.

 

The government wants to make sure that the cost of these schemes does not rise any further, partly because of the continued trend for people to live longer.

 

Source : BBC news

But Brian, most civil servants don't 'retire at 60'. Unless you have a rich husband or a rich wife people need to continue working until they start receiving their State Pension. The age Civil Servants qualify for their State Pension is no different to the age anyone else qualifies for their State Pension.

 

If a male civil servant reaches 60 he can at present retire. But unless he is very rich he isn't going to be able to survive on what he gets from the Civil Service Pension Scheme. So he has 2 options. Keep working until his State Pension kicks in at 65 (or 68 as it will be) or leave the Civil Service and get another job to supplement his Civil Service Pension.

 

The only ones who could possibly afford to retire at 60 and live comfortably on their Civil Service Pension Scheme are the Senior Civil Servants in Whitehall whose wages bear no relation to the wages of 95% of the rest of us.

 

And yes, as the last article says, the final salary scheme and the receipt of the Civil Service Pension at age 60 has already been scrapped for all new staff joining since 2007.

 

What I'm hoping to do is receive my Civil Service Pension at age 60 and then try to go Part-Time for the 5 years until I reach State Pension age and qualify for my State Pension. Although by then the State Pension age will probably be about 86. :rolleyes:

 

I do love this bit in the last article though-

'Union leaders are now happy with the changes, especially as existing civil servants who are in the scheme no longer face the possibility of working to 65'.

 

Oh really? I guess that sentence only refers to the Senior Civil Servants then....

 

I guess we could all retire tomorrow if we wanted. We could all retire any time we like. But you don't retire unless you can afford to do so.

 

 

PS- All civil servants contribute something into their Pension Scheme.

 

PPS- As the Government keeps telling us every year when we ask for a pay rise, our salaries are lower than comparable jobs in outside industry specifically because the Civil Service makes reasonably large contributions towards our Pension Scheme. And they tell us we should be adding the employer pension scheme contributions into our salary to get a 'true' salary figure. So if my Civil Service Pension Scheme wasn't there, I'd obviously be expecting a greatly increased rate of pay so I could make my own provision for my retirement. In fact, I'd then expect my yearly salary to be on a par with that of a lawyer with 22 years experience as I spend all my working week interpreting and writing submissions on complex Legislation. Hmmm, how much does a lawyer with 22 years experience earn I wonder???? :thinking:

 

Fine, scrap the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Give me a salary increase of £10,000 a year and we'll call it quits Mr Broon. :)

Edited July 12, 200817 yr by Jupiter9

But Brian, most civil servants don't 'retire at 60'. Unless you have a rich husband or a rich wife people need to continue working until they start receiving their State Pension. The age Civil Servants qualify for their State Pension is no different to the age anyone else qualifies for their State Pension.

 

If a male civil servant reaches 60 he can at present retire. But unless he is very rich he isn't going to be able to survive on what he gets from the Civil Service Pension Scheme. So he has 2 options. Keep working until his State Pension kicks in at 65 (or 68 as it will be) or leave the Civil Service and get another job to supplement his Civil Service Pension.

 

The only ones who could possibly afford to retire at 60 and live comfortably on their Civil Service Pension Scheme are the Senior Civil Servants in Whitehall whose wages bear no relation to the wages of 95% of the rest of us.

 

And yes, as the last article says, the final salary scheme and the receipt of the Civil Service Pension at age 60 has already been scrapped for all new staff joining since 2007.

 

What I'm hoping to do is receive my Civil Service Pension at age 60 and then try to go Part-Time for the 5 years until I reach State Pension age and qualify for my State Pension. Although by then the State Pension age will probably be about 86. :rolleyes:

 

I do love this bit in the last article though-

'Union leaders are now happy with the changes, especially as existing civil servants who are in the scheme no longer face the possibility of working to 65'.

 

Oh really? I guess that sentence only refers to the Senior Civil Servants then....

 

I guess we could all retire tomorrow if we wanted. We could all retire any time we like. But you don't retire unless you can afford to do so.

PS- All civil servants contribute something into their Pension Scheme.

 

PPS- As the Government keeps telling us every year when we ask for a pay rise, our salaries are lower than comparable jobs in outside industry specifically because the Civil Service makes reasonably large contributions towards our Pension Scheme. And they tell us we should be adding the employer pension scheme contributions into our salary to get a 'true' salary figure. So if my Civil Service Pension Scheme wasn't there, I'd obviously be expecting a greatly increased rate of pay so I could make my own provision for my retirement. In fact, I'd then expect my yearly salary to be on a par with that of a lawyer with 22 years experience as I spend all my working week interpreting and writing submissions on complex Legislation. Hmmm, how much does a lawyer with 22 years experience earn I wonder???? :thinking:

 

Fine, scrap the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Give me a salary increase of £10,000 a year and we'll call it quits Mr Broon. :)

 

I've changed my mind after seeing the facts here... I'm with Jupiter 9.... There are gross misconceptions here being given out by the Media.... How typical.... -_-