The Government has launched a consultation into ending six-figure ‘golden goodbyes’ for public sector staff.
The Treasury is looking to cap exit payments at £95,000 for all public servants including those in local government.
Figures show that 1,600 public sector bosses received pay-offs of £100,000 or more in 2016/17 at a cost of £198m.
Chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, said: ‘It is clearly wrong when people leave public sector roles with massive payoffs. It incenses the public when they see their hard-earned money used badly like this.
‘That’s why we are capping exit payments to stop unacceptably large pay-outs for senior managers.’
However, the FDA union said the move ‘demonised’ senior managers to hide the human impact of the policy.
FDA general secretary, Dave Penman, said: ‘Not satisfied with previous cuts to the pay, pensions and redundancy arrangements of public servants, the Government is now imposing a further attack on redundancy terms. It is completely disingenuous of Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary of the Treasury, to dress this up as a way to 'stop large pay-outs for senior managers'.
‘As she knows all too well, when the Conservatives first mooted this arbitrary cap in 2015, it included protection for those earning less than £27,000 a year. Not only has this protection been abandoned, but it demonstrates that their blunt approach to capping redundancy payments will hurt teachers, police officers, fire fighters, doctors, paramedics and other individuals serving the public.’
