Around 500 personnel from the Cabinet Office are expected to receive severance packages worth approximately £50,000 each, as the government seeks to trim expenses.
Fifty-four hundred civil servants set to receive generous payoffs
Buckle up, bucko! The Cup of Joe is about to spill over for 5000 bureaucrats, with average payout checking in at a cool £50k each. Yep, you heard it right, according to the sleuthing of these toothsome Mandarins, these departing fellows will be snagging serious dough as they wave goodbye to the Cabinet Office.
As they faced questions from the curious folks at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee last week, these department heads let it slip that an impressive £27million had been set aside for these goodbyes.
540 full-time positions are expected to vanish in this initial wave of "voluntary exits," as the government frantically seeks to slash expenses. Sarah Harrison, our charming Chief Operating Officer, broke the news to the panel.
But what about those other 600-700 job cuts on the horizon? Well, Harrison cautioned that the price tag remains unclear for now. Nevertheless, she ensured the audience that, wherever feasible, they'd prefer to see these folks shifted to jobs in other government departments rather than boot them out.
'We'd like to find new opportunities for them within the government,' Harrison shared, 'and some of those will leave on their own, while others take the voluntary exit routes we've outlined.'
The last thing on their minds? A bloody, painful layoff process. Phew, we love a government that cares!
Voluntary exit packages are calculated using the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, a veritable treasure trove of perks tailored to job level and years of service. Gee, who wouldn't want a piece of that pie?
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer with the jazziest financial plans this side of the Thames, has instructed departments to chop their administrative expenses—that's everything from HR to policy advice and office management—by a meaty 15%. That's equivalent to a whopping £2.2billion a year by 2029-30, with an initial target of £1.5billion slashed by 2028-29.
Unions have already thrown some serious shade, warning that this move could mean a catastrophic loss of 50,000 jobs, as opposed to the 10,000 prophesized by Reeves. Even if the scale of reduction dropped to that quantity, the civil service would remain far bigger than its 2016 self—the year of the Brexit referendum.
Reeves struck a hopeful tone during the Spring Statement, expressing her intent to create a leaner, more limber state apparatus. As of the end of last year, a grand total of 548,000 individuals were employed—nearly a third larger than the 2016 headcount.
A Government spokestype responded: "This investment will save taxpayers £110million by 2028-2029, eliminating roles and streamlining the Cabinet Office to better serve the public."
The bright lights of this transformation, we're told, will cascade to the classrooms, hospitals, and beat-pounding cops (quite the trifecta). Time will tell if these plans truly streamline or swirl us down the drain!
Intriguingly, the government has capitalized an impressive £150 million for voluntary exit schemes as part of a broader £3.25 billion transformation fund, earmarked to reduce government expenses. This scheme aims to torpedo the civil service by about 10,000 jobs initially and as much as 15% overall by the end of the decade, paving the way for a more agile, less bloated bureaucracy[1][2][3][4][5].
- As the government aims to cut expenses, the Cabinet Office has set aside £27 million for 540 civil servants to take voluntary exits, with an average payout of £50,000 each.
- Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has directed departments to reduce administrative expenses by 15%, leading to potential layoffs of up to 50,000 jobs, according to unions.
- The government has earmarked £150 million for voluntary exit schemes to reduce the civil service by about 10,000 jobs initially and as much as 15% overall by the end of the decade.
- During the Spring Statement, Reeves emphasized her intention to create a leaner, more agile state apparatus, with the civil service currently employing nearly a third more individuals than in 2016.
- The government's transformation fund, amounting to £3.25 billion, hopes to streamline the Cabinet Office and other services, with potential benefits cascading to classrooms, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies.
