Whitehall forks out more than half a billion pounds on redundancy payments

New figures reveal

Whitehall spent more than half a billion pounds on redundancy payments including £296m of compulsory and voluntary redundancy payments.

Last year, the bill for authorised payoffs topped £253m.

Figures in the annual reports of Whitehall departments point out that there were 194 payoffs worth more than £100,000.

The highest pay-outs, more than £200,000, were made by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, while the fourth was from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural affairs.

Tim Farron, leader of the Lib Dems, said: “People should get a fair redundancy payment but hundreds of thousands of pounds to the most senior civil servants is frankly extortionate.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are delivering our manifesto commitment to end sixfigure payoffs for the best-paid public sector workers. These reforms will ensure fairness and value for money across the public sector.”