TOP BRASS GOLD RUSH
Council staff land £ 250K handshake to beat new limit
THIRTY council officials received payoffs of more than £ 250,000 in a “stampede” to beat a new limit.
From Wednesday, no former council worker will be entitled to a payoff of over £ 95,000.
But in the year to March 31, a total of 300 received £ 100,000 or more. And councils in England have paid out a total of £ 220million on thousands of former staff, with one ex- worker in Dorset getting nearly £ 1m.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “There has clearly been a stampede for these payouts before the new cap comes in. Some of these payments look more like lottery wins than compensation for losing a job.”
Tory Chancellor George Osborne vowed in 2015 to slash payouts, but the rule has taken five years to come into force.
Dorset Council paid £ 13.3m in total to former staff. Forty got over £ 100,000 while six went home with more than £ 320,000.
Deputy leader Peter Wharf said it was a “legal obligation” but added: “There were a number of eye- watering amounts over which we had no control.”
He also said it was “bonkers” staff could take a payoff and go straight into another job.
Ex- deputy chief executive at Coventry City Council, Martin Yardley, received a £ 573,660 payoff in March and then took a part- time job as a development director at Warwick University.
Former interim director of housing and regeneration at Haringey Council, north London, Helen Fisher, got a £ 373,803 payoff in 2019- 2020.
She then took a similar job at Watford Council and received a further £ 98,700 in the same financial year.