Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultations they have conducted on the impact of the cap on low- to middle-income earners in the public sector, and what protections were considered when setting the level of the exit payment cap at £95,000.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government set out its proposals for the cap on public sector exit payments in the consultation document published on 31 July 2015 and confirmed the design of the cap in the consultation response document published on 16 September 2015. The consultation document gave details of the number of exits over recent years that cost the taxpayer more than £100,000.

The precise number of those affected by the public sector exit payment cap will depend on the number and type of exits in coming years. However, in recent years the large majority of exits in the public sector are below the level of the cap. For example, the Whole of Government Accounts states that, in 2013-14, 1,838 out of 72,445 pay outs were in excess of £100,000.

The exit payment clauses currently before the House of Lords in the Enterprise Bill set out how the cap is expected to apply.