Seems I'm in line for a 4 figure bonus and 3 weeks Christmas leave.



BOSS!!!!!!!!



"………How do the civil servants at MOD sleep at night?

Unless you have been on the moon for the past 12-18 months you will have heard the claims that British soldiers are losing their lives in Aghanistan due to the lack of equipment. You may also have heard rumours of potential slashing cuts to the Armed services in a government drive to save money. That in itself is hugely controversial, cutting public spending on the Armed forces during a war? It is unheard of.

Well, do not fear, not all departments of the MOD is having to slash its budget. The MOD civil servants, you know, the fat, lazy, and very safe part of the forces that never do anything more dangerous than use a stapler or a photocopier are all rubbing their hands together in anticipation of their 3 week Christmas holidays. Why? Because their pay bonuses are incoming.

£300 million has been paid to these these pie eating pen pushers with some being given presents of up to £17,000 each since the war began. That is more than a private soldier in Afghanistan earns in a year and would have paid for an extra 1,800 soldiers.

The MoD admits that £287million has been paid in bonuses since Britain went to war in Iraq. Last year, its bureaucrats pocketed £52.9million and in the first six months of 2009/10 they collected another £47.2million. Senior officials shared £1.5million, averaging £8,000 each. Junior staff took home an extra £775.

Shaun Rusling, vice-chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said last night: ‘This is disgusting. The sums beggar belief. ‘Surely the Government can see it would be better to spend this money on kit for our troops rather than lining the pockets of bureaucrats.’

How much did the actual Army of 103,000 men and women earn in bonuses during the same period? £0.……"

www.madnessoftheworld.com/?p=1355

Last edited by Semper_Flexibilis on Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

That was the point I was making, every government employee should be eligible for one based upon performance not just a few. We might even get a more efficient system as a result.

The so-called bonuses are paid out of a different pot and were agreed with the unions almost 3 years ago as part of a wider pay deal (which royally stitched the MOD CS, IMHO).

Bonuses in a CS environment are divisive and soak up a huge amount of administration time and resource all the way up the CoC that could be better used in managing the business. But, from the perspective of HMT, they are much cheaper than paying a salary and the subsequent pension.

Why the MOD, the unions and the CS at large signed up to the idea of bonuses in the late-90s is beyond me. But, IIRC, one T Blair claimed to be changing the world - and everyone believed him!

This is a non-story peddled by journalists who cannot be bothered to check back through their achives.

Litotes

Junior staff took home an extra £775 each?

Utter utter utter utter balls.

Forgive me Jim for just using some of your well-written prose on this subject.

I too am a Civil Serpant and think it's devisive, not just within the CS but throughout the MoD as witnessed here by some readers, Surprisingly, quite a lot of MoD CS have actually served in the Forces, a point conveniently ignored by some. I don't get a hard-on equating myself to the Major or Lt Col rank although Mrs Chance would be quite happy for me to bring home their equivalent wage packet as opposed to £350!

The main gripe most in the CS have is that if we were valued by Broon etc, we would be paid a better wage. I couldn't give a flying fukk whether I get a bonus or not although it's nice to have the extra £350 or whatever but I can live without it. If it was treated as part of my annual salary, it would count towards my pension which is nowhere near the sum a soldier gets.

Its bonuses since 2003, ie Since Op Telic kicked of

Oil Slick: You talk sh1te

What a remarkably sensible range of view are shown here - mainly due to the very large number of ex-Service personnel employed by the CS (it helps to have a pension,as the money is so rubbishy).

Given the massive media interest in all things military recently, two thoughts spring to mind here:

1. will the media start quoting ARRSE in this case, when almost every comment has been dismissive of this latest scare story? (Hint: I doubt it!)

2. It seems odd that this 'story' has suddenly surfaced again, and in several 'papers, at the same time. How is it that families of dead Soldiers just happened to be asked this? (Odd, eh?)


In short - this is a non-story.

As usual, the press and, in particular, Liam Fox, haven't a bloody scoobie.

They link this to the Nimrod fiasco and lack of kit but can someone tell me what the MoD CS in, for example, the Met Office have to do with this. Here's a good idea. Shut down the Met Office and make them all redundant. That'll save billions, as our aircraft won't be able to fly > won't have to buy any more > close down the RAF ......

They get a £500 non-consolidated, non-pensionable "bonus". So? How much does it cost to administer that scheme given all the forms they have to fill in etc, diverting them from the real task? Say it takes a man-day per CS to submit the claim and decide who gets a bonus. 50% of them don't get anything. That's 40,000 wasted man-days. MoD happily pay consultancy agencies £2k per DAY. Do the math, as they say.

What the fvck are you on about?


Or do you know something about my bonus and leave entitlement this Christmas I don't?

Last edited by Semper_Flexibilis on Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:48 am; edited 1 time in total

Yet another non-issue elevated into the public domain, and which can only damage the military long-term. We used to be seen as people who delivered whatever, and however unfair, the circumstance.

There is now a real danger of public fatigue with the military - not a day now goes by without some accusation of 'Tommy' being treated badly, most of them utterly trivial issues.

Are we becoming that which we used to detest in the civilian world - serial whingers and whiners?

I think a lot of people are missing the point here - the MOD CS didnt want the bonus scheme in the first place. It was forced on us by the Treasury, which wanted to save money in the long term by reducing the size of its pension bill.

If the bonus scheme had been paid as salary (which was what would have originally occurred), then HMT would have increased its pension liability by £300m in the same time frame, leading to howls of anguish from all and sundry about the pension time bomb, and how we should embrace performance related pay.

Its been interesting today, I've seen a lot of my forces colleagues very much on our side - accepting that we really don't want the scheme and don't like it. I've also seen a lot of people who are very genuinely furious that the media seems to think we want the bonus, and that we don't care about the front lines, and all we care about is getting £350 before tax every year. What everyone, without exception wants, is for DGMC to actually stand up, and put a senior military officer into the fray to defend the CS and explain that what we do is important, does make a difference, and that we are thoroughly fed up with being seen as easy targets for the daily hates bash a target day.

Thank you to the vast majority of Arrsers for a sensible, measured response - it is appreciated.

I am in total agreement with most sensible comments here but what really annoys me is how the MoD's well feathered spin/pr machine allows itself to be manouvered into these positions where they have to defend themselves

Surely, if the MoD laid out the case for its civil servants and used many of the facts presented here the story would not have lifted off in the first place. The story itself is actually a few days old and I think came from a parliamnetary question so they had a few days to sort out a sensible case or even get their digs in early and pre-empt the story.

Time and time again the MoD get skewered by non stories, if anyone wants their arrses kicking its the PR department

What? The MoD has a PR Department? Well I'll be fukked!

Cut CS posts.
Give the work to external contractors.
MoD PR announces it's saved X amount in pay and pensions.
MoD PR conveniently forgets to mention that it's now costing 3 times the previous amount.
But at least they can say they've made a cut in manning.

I worked for the Inland Revenue for 10 years and we used to tell people we got staff discount on PAYE as a wind up.

Most people fell for it because they wanted to believe the worst of us. It's the same with this non-story, people want to believe the worst of the MOD staff so they will take the story at face value.

Grunt end CS pay is not great. The bonus is built into the pay budget at the start of the year. A £1k bonus isn't going to change anyone's life and it hasn't robbed one serviceman of his body armour, a weapon, a helicopter ride or even an egg banjo.

As for deceased servicemen's families being asked to comment then I'd hope they'd have seen Mrs Janes and realised they'd do themselves or the memory of their son/father no favours by indulging gutter journos who care less for them than anyone.

I could be wrong but I think Norfolknchance thinks you wrote that long rant, seeing as you didn't put quote marks around it.

ARRSE has just hit the Guardian

Do they have a dedicated journo who sole job is monitoring ARRSE 24 hours a day?

I don't know, but they seem to have 'Bosnia Bob' on 5 mins NTQ (Notice To Quote)

C_C