How we exposed scandalous greed
THE extraordinary pay packages claimed by NHS hospital bosses were uncovered earlier this year by the Daily Mail Investigations Unit.
Reporters carried out the most comprehensive audit ever of trust accounts – and discovered senior executives were manipulating the NHS pension scheme.
Even at hospitals with the worst standards of care, executives claimed pay packages worth up to £5,000 a day. Bosses had been using an array of tricks to milk the Health Service for millions – over many years. Our analysis found that nearly 1,000 executives were on pay packages of £100,000 or more a year. And nearly 50 bosses earned more than £400,000 when their pension contributions were taken into account.
Baroness Altmann, who has been appointed Pensions Minister, said the situation was ‘on the scale of the MPs’ expenses scandal’.
While basic salaries of executives were listed in the accounts, the perks they claimed on top were hidden in the footnotes. NHS chiefs were, for instance, cashing in tax-free lump sums of hundreds of thousands of pounds by secretly retiring for 24 hours. Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust had declared a £15. million deficit but chief executive Sue James earned a £190,000 salary. On top of this was a tax-free payment of between £152,500 and £155,000 in ‘pension-related benefits’.
A footnote explained: ‘Susan James retired on 30th March 2014 and was in receipt on (sic) NHS pension as at the 31st March 2014, she was subsequently reemployed by the Trust on the 1st April 2014.’
The Mail also revealed how freelance bosses were being paid through personal service companies – a move often used to avoid tax, which was supposed to have been banned by the Treasury three years ago.
Subsequent investigation into the bosses revealed how they had used wealth acquired from the NHS during a time of crisis to fund extravagant lifestyles.