Home Office and UK Border Agency staff get £3.4m in bonuses

In a Daily Mail report Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has revealed that in 2008-9, £3.4 million was paid in bonuses to staff at the Home Office and the UK Border Agency.

Over £3.4million has been paid in bonuses to staff at the Home Office headquarters and the UK Border Agency in 2008-09, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admitted.

The revealation came out in a House of Commons written reply to questions, where Mr Woolas said that 6,036 payments were made relating to ‘exceptional’ performance the previous year.

He told Shadow Treasury chief secretary Philip Hammond that the ‘non-consolidated performance payments’ comprised 0.5 per cent of a total pay bill of £750million.

Immigration Matters Comment

Whether we like it or not the UK Border Agency is actually a ‘business’, albeit an offshoot of the Home Office, and like most business has targets and performance based rewards.

But is it right or moral that servants of the state should receive bonuses for meeting a target for the number of people they deport?

The UK Border Agency also spends millions more than it earns in visa fees, so why is a loss making business paying out bonuses to its staff?

In the current climate the news will be another blow to the Brown Government still reeling from the MP’s expenses scandal.

The news will also not go down well with migrants who are having to pay inflation busting fees to work, study or remain in the UK.

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