States’ severance and redundancy payouts cost £18m in seven years

Sunday 22 January 2017

States severance and redundancy payouts have averaged around £2.5m a year since 2010, with payouts of more than £5.5m in both 2011 and 2016.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed 363 staff have been made redundant or had their contracts cancelled during the seven year period, averaging out at around £50,000 per person.

But the rounded figures don’t tell the full story. 153 staff have had payouts of more than £50,000, obviously reducing the average payout to the others.

Most of the payouts have been as a result of the States implementing efficiency drives and streamlining services which has resulted in job cuts, and having to pay off workers. Many have taken voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

But there have also been a number of ‘controversial’ and much talked about high profile payouts to senior civil servants. The Freedom of Information reply says the highest pay out to a single employee since 2010 was  £222,537 but that that was under the old terms and conditions.