High paid executives who take a redundancy payment from the public sector and then to return to work in the same part of the public sector within a year will need to repay the taxpayer Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has announced today.
Under proposals published by the government, individuals earning over £100,000 who take a new job in the same part of the public sector within 12 months of being made redundant will have to repay all or some of their redundancy payment.
The full amount will be pro-rated depending on the length of time between exit and re-employment. The plans will mainly affect NHS and local government administrators. A number of these workers have taken redundancy payments before shortly returning to public sector.
Commenting Danny Alexander said: "It’s only fair that highly-paid executives who receive a redundancy payout from the public purse and then quickly return to the same part of the public sector repay the taxpayer. Reforming the public sector so it works for Britain has been a key part of this government’s drive to create a stronger economy and fairer society."
Responding to the announcement for Labour, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie, said: "This announcement is too little, too late. Ministers could have acted on this years ago before they wasted millions of pounds firing and then rehiring staff. In the NHS alone, the government's reckless reorganisation has seen £1.6 billion spent on redundancies. Over 4,000 NHS staff - some of whom received pay-offs over £200,000 - have been fired and rehired under this government."
