Having had a chance to work out the implications of the new world ‘Policing more for less with less’ I can confirm that I appear to be one of the 40% of officers that will be worse off following the implementation of Winsor Part 1.
Pension contributions and the loss of many things that I would be normally entitled to have meant that I will be tightening the belt a little more this year. If it gets much tighter it will only fit round my neck and not my waist.
Thankfully I am able to avoid one penalty as I no longer qualify for those contentious annual increments in my salary. However, being just shy of qualification for CRTP I will miss out on two years of threshold payments due to the freeze. Together with the loss of SPP and cuts to overtime rates it all adds up to a pretty scary figure over the next two years.
- Additional Pension Payments: £800
- Loss of CRTP payments at 2011 rates: £2244
- Loss of SPP payments (at non-specialist officer rate): £2000
- Inflation linked salary increases (at 2.5%) based on pay @ September 2010 rate: £1850
- Reduction in Overtime Rates (based on average of hours worked in previous 5 years): £780
- Increase in fuel costs as my team is soon to be relocating to a central ‘hub’: £700
This equates to a reduction of £8,374 over what I would have expect to have earned over the next two years or £4,187 per year – roughly what is being reported in the press.
If you break that figure down further it comes to £80.52 per week which is pretty much the cost of my families weekly food shop. As things stand I invariably exhaust my available bank balance a few days before the next salary payment tops it back up again. I don’t spend money on luxuries, have a flash car, large house, or a 40 inch 3D TV like the one I saw in the front room of the benefit claiming drug abuser I was in last night.
God forbid I might want to have a take-away once a month or take the kids away somewhere that isn’t within the confines of the UK this year. Perhaps I could apply for some kind of charitable grant…
It annoys me to constantly read about how well Police officers are paid, and that we are not getting pay cuts, just a two-year freeze which will bring us more in line with other public sector employees. The impact of these reductions (after all that IS what they are) in our salary will do nothing to improve the morale or motivation of officers on the ground.
When I joined the Police it was during a 10 year period of steady recruiting that was open to anyone with the basic educational qualifications required and the ability to speak to an interview panel with some degree of competence. Those who chose an alternative public sector position did so because that was what they decided to do. We should not be punished or criticised for the choices we made – if our job is so attractive then come give it a go!
Maybe I could apply to replace Kerry Katona doing adverts for a popular low-price food store.
Teresa May…That’s why cops go to Iceland!
