Recovery of public sector exit payments consultation launched by government
26 Jun 2014 12:44 PM
Consultation on plans to
stop high paid public sector employees keeping redundancy payments when they
return to the public sector within a short period of
time.
Last month the government
announced plans to stop high paid public sector employees keeping redundancy
payments when they come back to the same part of the public sector within a
short period of time.
HM Treasury is launching a
consultation, “Recovery of Public
Sector Exit Payments”, on these proposals and will be seeking views
on a number of areas including, the workforces in scope and compliance
arrangements.
These provisions will mean
individuals are not over-compensated and will ensure value for money for the
tax payer. While many public sector organisations already have arrangements in
place to prevent this, the proposals the government is consulting on will
introduce for the first time a common position on clawbacks across the public
sector.
The Chief Secretary to the
Treasury, Danny Alexander, said:
Taxpayers are rightly concerned
when they hear of highly paid public sector employees leaving one job with a
substantial pay off, only to return to the same or similar work in the public
sector within a short time on a high salary. These measures will reduce the
costs of this revolving door to make sure that taxpayers are getting value for
money and also help protect frontline public services.
To ensure consistency and
fairness across the board, the intention is to include the widest possible
cross section of the public sector. The government has been clear that
exceptions will be made for the Armed Forces, National Museums and some public
financial corporations.
The consultation will close on 17 September 2014. The government
will give careful consideration to the responses before taking a final
decision.