Bonus payments worth as much as £17,500 are being given to top officials in the Department for Work and Pensions, it has emerged.
The UK Government said 61 senior civil servants in the DWP – which is in charge of the welfare system, including the botched roll-out of Universal Credit – last year got awards at an average of £9600.
Last night, SNP MSP Shona Robison said: “People will rightly be asking questions about where the DWP’s priorities lie.
“They scrapped the £10 bonus for people struggling over Christmas and inflicted cuts on low-income families across Scotland but are rewarding senior staff with huge bonuses.
“The Tory Government is letting the most vulnerable people in society down first with a system which overwhelmingly benefits the rich while low-income families are forced to choose between paying their rent and feeding their children.”
The DWP’s bonus figures emerged in a freedom of information request seen by the Record. Details of awards were given depending on pay scale, including for grade six staff who earn about £70,000.
They said 183 grade six employees were given awards of £1450 in the financial year 2017-18.
The most senior civil servants got between £9500 and £17,500 in performance awards, averaging £9600. More than 55,000 staff in admin, executive officers and higher executive roles got £500.
The DWP said: “It is right that we support our employees by recognising good performance and for senior civil servants performance-related awards are restricted to top performers only.”
