Bungling NS&I boss handed ‘dismaying’ £25,000 bonus

THE National Savings & Investments chief executive received a £25,000 “performance-related” bonus last year – despite overseeing vast cuts in savings deals and a customer service shambles.

NS&I paid the sum to boss Ian Ackerley in September for his performance throughout the pandemic in 2020-21, annual accounts published last night showed.

The award came even though Mr Ackerley missed a number of key targets for the year.

NS&I customers faced major issues trying to contact the provider during the coronavirus crisis. Savers rushed to withdraw money following a raft of cuts in savings deals.

Mr Ackerley said he was “sorry” for failing savers in front of MPS 18 months ago on the Treasury select committee, which grilled the former Barclays executive on alarming drops in customer service levels.

The bonus came on top of Mr Ackerley’s £200,000 salary and £75,000 pension benefits. His pay deal is worth about £300,000 for 2021-22.

Critics called it a “dismaying” use of public money.

A NS&I spokesman said: “NS&I’S staff are eligible for performancerelated pay based on their individual performance and on the performance of NS&I as a whole.”

In November 2020, customers were forced to wait almost 20 minutes on the phone on average before speaking to customer service.

Normally, saver queries were resolved in around half a minute. NS&I’S call centre capacity fell 60pc during the year as a result of staffing issues caused by lockdown.

Customers also faced hefty cuts in some of the provider’s most popular savings deals to as low as 0.1pc, from more than 1pc.

This created a rush of customers wanting to move their money just as staff levels were reduced.

Mr Ackerley defended the cuts at the time.

He said rival high street providers had also reduced rates meaning the state-backed institution would overshoot its £35bn fundraising target, set by HM Treasury, if it remained the highest payer.

However, NS&I eventually undershot the target by more than £10bn, raising just £23.8bn in deposits by the end of the financial year.

Anna Bowes, of Savings Champion, a comparison site, said savers who could not access money during the pandemic would be “dismayed and furious” over the bonus for Mr Ackerley.