Pay-offs for civil servants totalled £38m
SCOTTISH taxpayers spent £38million on “golden goodbyes” for civil servants last year, with more than 70 mandarins enjoying six-figure payoffs.
The Scottish Government accounts for the 2011/22 financial year show 964 civil servants were handed “exit packages” worth on average of almost £40,000 each.
But a select group of 72 of Scotland’s most senior officials received £100,000 or more from the public purse after successfully applying for a severance package.
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Two senior civil servants received between £200,000 and £250,000. The figures do not take into account pension costs of £594million.
The payments included more than half a million pounds paid by the taxpayer into the retirement pots of SNP ministers and their most senior civil servants.
According to the accounts, 198 civil servants received between £50,000 and £100,000
According to the accounts, 198 civil servants received between £50,000 and £100,000.
Scottish Tory finance spokesman Gavin Brown called for a review of “golden goodbyes”.
He said: “People will be shocked and angry, especially given the current economic situation, that the Scottish Government is using nearly £40million in this way.”
Alex Salmond’s Cabinet members have accrued pensions worth £493,000 in the five years they have been in power.
The total does not include the First Minister, who receives a special pension worth half his salary as soon as he stands down.
The figures also show that Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Housden, Scotland’s top civil servant, has a pension fund worth more than £1.7million. This is enough to give him an annual pension of around £80,000 per year in addition to a tax-free lump sum of £230,000 when he retires.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the exit packages strategy was aimed at saving taxpayers more money in the longer term.