Bosses to repay 'golden goodbyes' on return to public sector

Updated

More than 90,000 public sector bosses will have to repay generous exit packages if they return to the sector within one year, the Government has announced.

New measures will prevent anyone earning £80,000 or more keeping so-called golden goodbyes if they move from one public sector position to another within 12 months.

The move is an attempt to cut down on what is viewed as a revolving-door culture of movement between jobs in the sector.

Previous legislation applied only to people earning £100,000 or more, meaning tens of thousands of highly paid bosses will now face the restriction.

Greg Hands, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, claimed the move would help "modernise" the terms and conditions of the public sector.

He said: "It is unacceptable that, in the past, working taxpayers have had to fork out for golden parachute payments for highly-paid public sector workers who then go on to get jobs in another part of the public sector.

"Some of these payments have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. We've already delivered on our pledge to end six-figure pay-offs in Whitehall.

"Now we're going further, and delivering a system that will mean exit payments are clawed back if public sector workers who get them simply join another organisation within months."

Coming into force in April, the rule change will cover public sector workers moving into different sectors, instead of just sub-sectors, such as health or education. The Government will also cap exit payments at £95,000.

It is part of a broader range of cuts which the Government says has saved £12 billion since the last parliament.

"Today's consultation on regulations to recover exit payments is just the latest step in modernising terms and conditions in the public sector, which has already saved taxpayers £12 billion over the last parliament," Mr Hands said.

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