General Chat

The BBC was yesterday condemned by the spending watchdog for paying its staff £24million to move to Salford without asking for receipts to prove their relocation expenses claims.

MPs accused the corporation of overseeing a ‘colossal waste of money’ after the National Audit Office found 894 staff were handed an average of £23,000 each.

The money was to compensate them for the cost of moving to the BBC’s new £1billion headquarters. However, they did not have to provide basic evidence of train fares or utility bills to back up their expense claims.

Some were paid as much as £150,000 in ‘relocation allowances’, allowing the total cost of moving BBC staff to rise to more than twice the estimate of £11million.

Hundreds claimed up to £1,900 a month to cover all rent, bills and council tax in Salford, while others received £3,000 to buy new curtains and carpets

Every staff member was given £5,000 as a ‘financial incentive’ to make the move to Salford. They were also offered £350 to go on ‘familiarisation visits’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324280/900-BBC-staff-handed-average-23-000-North-leaving-MPs-furious-colossal-waste.html

Yes, but think about all the personal upheaval of their families. New schools, cheaper housing, cheaper shops, access to lake District and N Wales, less traffic and fretful commuting. Have some sympathy with poor dears ;-)

Not sure MP's are the ones to criticise :-(

The report says that the BBC has "estimated" its move to Salford "could" create an additional 15,000 jobs in the region through added spending. However it has directly recruited just 254 staff from Greater Manchester, including 39 from Salford.

Does that mean that there will be 15,000 fewer jobs in London due to the reduced spending in London as a result of this move, and would we not have saved the taxpayers the estimated cost of £24million for relocation costs by building their new premises in the London area :-S

£23,000 per head doesn't sound like a lot to me.

Apart from any incentive all the rest goes on paying for bills and expenses you wouldn't otherwise have incurred, they were not 'handed' the money at all.

Thanks to Gordon Brown, there are complex rules as to what it tax free and what is taxable for relocation, so it is possible that you end up having to pay tax out of your own money on certain types of expenses. Typically anything over £8,000 may be caught.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/exb/a-z/r/relocation.htm#1

Having been relocated three times, I can tell you it is not the most pleasant of experiences. My last move in 1990 left me £2,500 out of pocket, was delayed twice by the vendor of the house we were buying who was unable to organise the proverbial, leaving my wife home alone for over a month in an empty house with packing boxes for company.

I moved from Kent to Staffordshire with my job many years ago and at the time got what I thought was a a reasonable relocation allowance. But removal and settling in costs a colossal amount and now, decades later, I am retired and my family are 250 miles away. When you take resettlement you are giving up one life for another. Its not all honey.