Rural Payments Agency chief in crossfire over bonus row

THE man chosen to turn around the troubled Rural Payments Agency has been thrust into a political battle over high pay after pocketing a bonus in his last job.

Tory MP Anne McIntosh has called for the Government to “root out” inappropriate bonuses after it emerged Mark Grimshaw was paid more than £5,000 at the Child Support Agency, which has been criticised with families owed £3.8 billion from absent parents.

Mr Grimshaw, who became chief executive of the RPA in January 2011, earned the bonus for securing “record” child maintenance collections, but Miss McIntosh insisted some payments were “simply not warranted”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Thirsk and Malton MP Miss McIntosh raised the case amid political fury over bonuses which forced RBS chief executive Steven Hester to turn his down.

“At a time of austerity, when the Prime Minister’s asking for pay restraint, why are we paying these generous bonuses?” she asked, adding that any performance-related payments should be open and transparent.

It emerged recently that thousands of child maintenance claims are having to be processed by hand because of computer problems at the CSA, while in his new job Mr Grimshaw is charged with turning round the RPA after years of trouble endured by farmers due European subsidies.

A spokesperson for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, of which the Child Support Agency is a division, said: “A performance-related bonus of between £5,000 and £10,000 was awarded to Mark Grimshaw for his work as Managing Director of the Child Support Agency between April 2010 and January 2011.

“During this time he helped secure record child maintenance collections despite the well-known deficiencies of the CSA’s systems.”