The fat cats get fatter

The Guardian today quotes Philip Hammond on the large bonuses paid to Treasury staff, now including Revenue & Customs. It seems that over the past 5 years £53m has been, and £21.5m in 2005-06 alone.

The Guardian estimates that up to 150 senior Treasury officials might have received bonuses averaging £4,000 in 2006-07, while 80,000 staff shared the remainder. Some bonuses were as little as £100, for having to work during brief crises.

It is to be hoped that those who have overseen the shambolic tax credits system, where payments of £1.7bn were made and then reclaimed from struggling families in 2006-2007, did not participate in the "goodies".

This was all in the name of reducing costs, and theses bonuses were not consolidated nor counted towards pensions entitlement - so it's alright then. But what about the tax credits "victims", - did those responsible for causing these problems also receive bonuses, or did the troubles not come into the calculation at all?