Bonuses have gone up by 70% compared to the £11m in the previous year, despite seven data breaches since April 2005
Accountancy Age, 10 Jan 2008
The HMRC department that caused the blunder which saw the personal details of 25 million families go missing, has been given £19m in performance-related bonuses.
Some of the payouts, amounting to £8,000, were made just days after the news of the missing child benefit database discs made headlines.
The bonuses have gone up by 70% compared to the £11m staff received in the previous year despite seven data breaches since April 2005, the Telegraph reported.
According to figures released, 220 senior HMRC staff received bonuses for 2006-7 worth £1.7m, on average £8,000.
A further £1.7m was dished out to nearly 38,000 other workers who received ad average of £453 each.
Conservative chairman of the Treasury sub-committee, Michael Fallon, described the scale of the payout as 'staggering'.
'Given the over-payments of tax credits and data loss mistakes, constituents might be surprised to learn that a third of staff at HMRC shared a performance-related bonus,' said Fallon.
But Treasury minister Jane Kennedy, said the increase was the result of a 'pay assimilation exercise' after HM Customs and Excise and Inland Revenue merged in 2005.
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