Jobcentre boss's pension rockets as dole queue grows
The big rise in a civil servant's provision after a year in the job adds to the row over public sector pay
Sunday 01 August 2010
Latest in UK Politics
Related articles
On Facebook
From the blogs
Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single
For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...
Top of the posts: Drunken rants, the Western Fail and misogyny pushers
The most read blogs this week, as determined by stats.
Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller
As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...
Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?
Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...
A career civil servant's pension was boosted by 25 per cent after seeing out his final working year as the stand-in head of Britain's employment centres. Mel Groves retired with a pension pot worth £1.75m, after a 12-month spell as acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus during which there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of people on the dole.
Critics attacked the rise, saying it appeared "completely out of proportion" for someone in the post temporarily. The row threatens to reopen debate over public sector pay and perks.
In March 2008, the cash equivalent transfer value of Mr Groves' pension was £1.4m while he was chief operating officer for the agency. But completing his civil service career as acting chief executive saw the value of his fund rocket. He retired in November 2009 aged 63. In March this year his fund was valued at £1.75m. Details of the package emerged in the Jobcentre Plus annual report.
The Department for Work and Pensions admitted the £1.75m pot "looks large" but insisted it was because Mr Groves "has worked for a long time". "There is absolutely nothing unusual about it. It is in line with the pension scheme that he is on and the salary jump he took," said a spokesman. Mr Groves earned £175,000-£179,000 per annum in his swansong role.
About one million people were claiming jobseeker's allowance when Mr Groves took over Jobcentre Plus in November 2008. By the time he retired a year later, another 500,000 had joined the dole queue, with 190,000 claimants signing on for the entirety of his tenure. During his year in charge, half of the network's offices faced a "capacity challenge" as queues grew, a situation exacerbated by an earlier decision to close hundreds of branches. Mr Groves was replaced last year by Darra Singh, former chief executive at Ealing Council.
"This steep increase in Mr Groves' pension pot seems completely out of proportion considering he took on these additional duties for a mere 12 months," said Fiona McEvoy from the TaxPayers' Alliance. "This is just an extreme case of the broader problem of gold-plated public sector pensions, which put a considerable strain on government finances and represent a huge liability for taxpayers who will be paying out for many years to come."
The Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said the size of the retirement fund was at odds with the experience of people attending Jobcentres. "On the base level they are doing their best, but the bosses are so bad at the very top level; the whole situation is out of control. They shouldn't be getting gold-plated pensions – they should be apologising." MPs were giving up their lucrative pension provision, he said, and senior civil servants should do the same.
A former Labour cabinet minister, Lord Hutton, is heading a review of public sector pensions, ordered by the Chancellor, George Osborne. The pension schemes enjoyed by senior civil servants at Jobcentre Plus are unfunded, with the cost met by monies voted by Parliament each year.
The Paymaster General, Francis Maude, has complained that there are too many people in the Civil Service "treading water" and being paid to do nothing. Whitehall departments admitted having 2,400 staff in "redeployment pools" who are being paid but have no role. In January, the Ministry of Defence had 1,525 officials with no role, including about 60 who had, in effect, been jobless for at least two years.
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Osborne adviser leaked budget information to Murdoch's man
- 3 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 4 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 5 News in pictures
- 6 Britain's waste: Now it's coming back to haunt us
- 7 Lawyers told Hunt to stay out of Sky deal
- 8 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 9 UK plans for euro-immigrants surge
- 10 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Osborne adviser leaked budget information to Murdoch's man
- 3 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 4 Society: The only way is Finland
- 5 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 6 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 7 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 8 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?
Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map
The outsider: Margaret Howell
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?



Comments