War zone civil servants cash in

Last Modified: 16 Nov 2007
By: Lewis Hannam

Desk-bound civil servants working in Iraq and Afghanistan are earning bonuses worth more than double the wages of front-line troops.

Office staff are being awarded extra allowances of up to £35,000 a year to work in the conflict zones, dwarfing the £2,300 bonus soldiers receive for a six-month tour of duty.

Injured soldiers' families and ex-military staff have reacted with anger over the extent of the allowance payments, unearthed via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by Channel 4 News online.

In one instance the disclosures reveal that just 29 foreign office (FCO) staff based in Basra shared a minimum of £928,588 in allowances last year, on top of their salaries.

In one instance the disclosures reveal that just 29 foreign office (FCO) staff based in Basra shared a minimum of £928,588 in allowances last year, on top of their salaries.

Ministry of defence (MoD) and department for international development (DFID) civil servants also pocketed hefty allowances for overseas stints, again on top of their regular wages.

Phil Cooper, 49, who is fighting for compensation for his son Jamie, an injured soldier, said the disparity in pay between soldiers and civil servants was unacceptable.

He said: "I'm angry about this and I'm sure the public will be angry about this too. It shows the double standards this government has got when it comes to the armed forces.

"These people are getting huge allowances on top of their normal salaries, yet they only gave my son paltry compensation for his injuries - compensation that wouldn't even cover him for three years."

Mr Cooper's 19-year-old son Jamie has been told he may be a wheelchair user for the rest of his life after shrapnel cut through his stomach during fighting in Iraq last year.

Private Cooper has been offered £57,000 in compensation by the MoD.

Mr Cooper added: "These people are getting extra bonuses for working in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what did they think they were going to be doing when they joined the MoD?"

Break-down of allowances

The allowances paid to civil servants by DFID and the FCO are broken into two sections: one for the "cost of living", the other for "hardship".

The FoI disclosures show that 483 FCO staff in Iraq and Afghanistan shared up to £15,025,226 in allowances during the past three years - an average of more than £30,000 each.

Over the same period 133 DFID staff shared £1,831,325 in allowances, and 308 MoD civilian staff received a total of £1,922,000 in what it calls "deployment" allowances.

The FCO documents also show its staff in Iraq have gone from earning a minimum of £13,450 a year in hardship allowances in 2004/5, to a minimum of £25,903 in 2006/7 - an increase of more than 50 per cent.

Entry-level UK troops are understood to earn as little as £14,000 a year. More than 250 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since conflict began, with hundreds more seriously wounded.

'These allowances are absurd, our soldiers are suffering greatly at the moment and these payments are unbelievable.'
Colonel Bob Stewart, former UN force commander

Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander of UN forces in Bosnia, said: "These allowances are absurd, our soldiers are suffering greatly at the moment and these payments are unbelievable.

"These civil servants are never in harm's way, they are always in a safe base.

"How many civil servants have been killed in Afghanistan? None. Whereas our soldiers are under constant threat of their lives."

An FCO spokesman said: "It is completely unjustified to claim that civil servants are "cashing in" by volunteering to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Civil Service allowances reflect the environment they work in, including the very real dangers they face working in Baghdad, Basra, Kabul or Lashkar Gar.

"It is simply wrong to argue that civil servants are 'never in harm's way'. That they volunteer to work in these environments, in some cases for up to two years, underlines their commitment and dedication."

Details of the allowance payments will increase criticism over the government's funding of the armed forces; concerns are regularly raised about a lack of pay, compensation and resources.

Earlier this week Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup voiced concerns over the poor standards of accommodation provided for soldiers.

Both the FCO and DFID said its staff were doing an important job in "challenging circumstances", helping to rebuild war-torn nations.

The FCO said the allowances were compensation for the "exceptionally difficult conditions" in which staff have to live and work.

The FOI disclosures

Read the response from the Department for International Development (DfID) here.
Read the responses from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) here and here.
Read the response from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) here.

A spokesman for the MoD said -

"Civil servants and the military do very different jobs and their pay and allowances cannot be readily compared. Civil servants are volunteers and only deployed where they have skills the military do not have, or to conduct roles that are not appropriate for the military to undertake.

"We need to reward staff adequately to compensate for the challenges and the different environments in which they have to work - this is common practice for taking up any post overseas, away from family and friends.

'Civil servants and the military do very different jobs and their pay and allowances cannot be readily compared.'
MoD spokesman

"Operational posts are different only in that the circumstances and environments are harsher than most other areas, and the working hours very much longer.

"Civil servants are an integral part of any deployed formation - they are not 'add-ons' but integrate fully into the force and often hold high levels of responsibility - far above that which would equate to similar roles in the UK.

"We need to reward these volunteers adequately for volunteering to perform such important tasks - they do not usually join the civil service to put themselves into such potentially dangerous environments."