Senior Civil Service Pay and Bonuses

Information from DFP on Pay Bands 1 and 2 (8 April 2009)

Mr Shane McAteer 

Clerk 
Committee for Finance and Personnel 
Room 419 
Parliament Buildings 
Stormont 
8 April 2009

Dear Shane

SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE PAY AND BONUSES

The Committee recently requested information relating to the value of the three components (pay band salary, bonus and pension) offered at Pay Bands 1 and 2 in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. This information is attached at Annex A.

Yours sincerely,

NORMAN IRWIN

ANNEX A

Pay Band Salaries

With effect from 1 April 2008, pay band 1 and 2 salary bands are –

Pay Band 1 - £57,300 - £116,000 
Pay Band 2 - £81,600 - £160,000

To put the pay ranges into context, the median salaries for each pay band paid to members of the NICS Senior Civil Service in 2008 were –

Pay Band 1 - £61,153 
Pay Band 2 - £86,971

Bonus Levels

As part of the 2008 SCS pay award, staff in pay bands 1 and 2 who were awarded a non-consolidated non-pensionable bonus payment were paid one of three bonus levels –

Level 1 - £10,500 
Level 2 - £7,750 
Level 3 - £5,000

Pension

Pension accrued throughout a career is very personal to the individual and therefore hard to quantify in terms of the amount payable to a group of individuals. To address this, Civil Service Pensions have provided illustrations setting out the pension payable on the median points of paybands 1 and 2 if the member were to leave with, variously, 5, 20 and 40 years’ service. For illustrative purposes, it is assumed the members are all in the Classic pension scheme (the original scheme).

Payband 1 – Median Salary - £61,153

Pension entitlement after 5, 20 and 40 years’ service -

(5 x £61,153) / 80 = £3,822.06 pension and £11,466.18 lump sum

(20 x £61,153) / 80 = £15,288.25 pension and £45,864.75 lump sum

(40 x £61,153) / 80 = £30,576.50 pension and £91,729.50 lump sum

Payband 2 - Median salary - £86,971

Pension entitlement after 5, 20 and 40 years’ service –

(5 x £86,971) / 80 = £5,435.69 pension and £16,307.07 lump sum

(20 x £86,971) / 80 = £21,742.75 pension and £65,228.25 lump sum

(40 x £86,971) / 80 = £43,485.50 pension and £130,456.50 lump sum