All fired up over pensions

EVEN a fireman knows how to start a blazing row. In accepting a settlement which is £29,500 greater because of a promotion to a rank to he held for just eight weeks, Mark Rhodes has inflamed public anger before he retires this week.
By The Newsroom
Published 28th Jul 2011, 07:00 BST

If he had any sense of proportion, he would do the decent thing and forgo this sum. Spending cuts are hitting every arm of the state. Of all groups, one would expect the emergency services to make savings in the most efficient way because their work is a matter of life and death.

As such, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service’s decision to splash out on a lump sum of £265,000 and a pension of £36,000 a year for Mr Rhodes is unjustifiable. Public sector bosses should surely hold down enhanced jobs for at least six months before they qualify for such pension bonuses.

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This is not the first time the enormous sums handed out by Humberside Fire and Rescue Service have prompted concern. It was only last month this newspaper revealed that Richard Hannigan had been promoted from deputy to chief fire officer for a year on a salary of £135,779, and assistant chief fire Officer Dene Sanders had stepped up to deputy for the same period on £115,412.

When a regional representative of the Left-leaning Fire Brigades’ Union and a Conservative Minister can find common cause in questioning the size of payments to this group of officials, it underlines just how badly mangers have lost touch with reality. One can only wonder what the effect of such lavish handouts will be on the morale of ordinary firefighters. Mr Rhodes carried out a demanding and dangerous job for many years and is entitled to a pension that reflects this work, but there is no need for a series of such lucrative long-term payments when the nation is grappling with its largest peacetime budget deficit and most current state workers are seeing their retirement benefits cut.

The fireman is one of many at the top of the public sector whose salary and pension package is too high. Members of the previous Labour government, who presided over the growth of such a culture, and fire authority members who created Humberside’s policy, all have questions to answer.

In the final reckoning, however, there is always a chance for Mr Rhodes to take personal responsibility and waive some of his rewards.