Nhs Desk Worker Gets £37K Porsche Boxster Sports Car Funded By The Taxpayer

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380399/NHS-desk-worker-gets-37k-Porsche-Boxster-sports-car-funded-taxpayer.html

Dozens of NHS desk workers are driving top-of-the-range rental cars that are funded by the taxpayer, it emerged today.

Strategic Health Authorities around the country have spent a staggering £1,000,000 every year since 2007 on the luxury cars.

They included a Jaguar XF, Mercedes CLS, Audi A5 Coupe and BMW 330 for staff who needed the vehicles to get around.

Shockingly, one 'pen pusher' was allowed to hire a £37,000 Porshe Boxster - costing taxpayers thousands of pounds.

.....

One SHA, Yorkshire and the Humber, splashed out £400,000 a year on 95 luxury motors, according to The Sun.

The worker who was handed a Porsche is employed by the second biggest spender, North West, which pays £4,500 towards each manager's annual rental costs. The figure amounts to £120,000 a year.

Across the country, the total bill for England's ten SHAs since 2007 came to £2,995,181. The figure amounts to almost £1,000,000 a year.

Spending on bureaucracy has soared 50 per cent since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007. But spending on cancer has increased by just 30 per cent.

If your a high flyer improving patient services you need to look the part, what better way of doing that than having a flash car...

Is this accurate is the govt wasting this amount of money on rental cars for manager? I mean why can't they just have Ford Ka or something to get around in?

Still at least it's only taxpayers cash being wasted on highly motivated individuals bringing the highest possible service to the masses at the most cost effective price...

[pilchardthecat]

Sounds like they give a £4500 car allowance, rather than a gift-wrapped Porsche. Total non-story if so.

[Milton]

Sounds like they give a £4500 car allowance, rather than a gift-wrapped Porsche. Total non-story if so.

Why is it a non story?

[_w_]

Why is it a non story?

I'm very curious too, I hope we get an answer.

[Timak]

My mum used to get an essential users car allowance of about £300 a month for her local authority job which involved a lot of travel in her own car.

She had a Fiat Panda.

She could have had an Aston Martin if she'd paid the extra costs herself.

If the reasons for car use are valid and the extra costs are paid by the staff then it really is a non-story.

[urban_hymn]

Why is it a non story?

Because if they get £4,500 per annum car allowance that's less than you would get in a lot of private sector jobs. I get more than that as my car allowance. I could hire a Corvette but when the money had gone after a couple of weeks, transport would be at my own expense.

[pilchardthecat]

Why is it a non story?

Lots of people get either a company car or a car allowance. If you take the latter you are free to spend it on whatever car you choose, and if that car is more than the allowance you canchoose to add to it from the rest of your income.

If it's a fleet car bought by the tax payer, that's different, but the article suggests otherwise.

I'm all for getting rid of public sector waste, starting with the pensions, but this is sensationalist tripe

[Milton]

Off topic. The family member of an acquantance commited suicide recently. He was unemployed, so the council paid for the funeral and the reception. There were over 150 mourners. Instead of some working mens club, it was held at a nice hotel. The family member told me that they were able to choose the top of the range casket, and the council didnt bat an eyelid.They paid for it all. It was tragic as he was a young man. But it was surprising to me that the council would cover the cost.

A boxster costs at least £550pcm

Edited April 25, 2011 by Dan1

[The Knimbies who say No]

It seems perfectly reasonable that if someone wishes a car which costs more than their allotted allowance, they stump up the difference. If the allowances take the piss, fair enough, but it's not obviously the case here.

Next!

[libspero]

Sounds like they give a £4500 car allowance, rather than a gift-wrapped Porsche. Total non-story if so.

This part isn't..

Spending on bureaucracy has soared 50 per cent since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007. But spending on cancer has increased by just 30 per cent.

I don't think anyone could argue this is a good reallocation of funds.. unless you would like to try..?

[scrappycocco]

The issue is their frigging desk workers (not doctors and nurses) and they're over paid enough to afford to lease these cars, regardless of the car allowance. Also that million quid could be better spent making hospitals cleaner and providing healthy food for patients.

[The Knimbies who say No]

This part isn't..

I don't think anyone could argue this is a good reallocation of funds.. unless you would like to try..?

Quite right. I suppose that attacking the car allowance is pointless, as it's easy to explain. Perhaps the point should be made that many of the folks claiming the car allowance shouldn't be there in the first place. The piece just seems like an odd way to make a point about spending, as there are plenty of easier angles to put on the 'NHS waste' theme.

[_w_]

Thanks for the explanations. Something doesn't sound quite right though.

If a middle manager or average bureaucrat can afford to drive a recent model porsche, something tells me I'm paying him too much. I can imagine the odd car enthusiast using an allowance to indulge himself while cutting back on everything else but the article indicates this is not a unique occurrence.

And £4,000 a year allowance? That's twice what I spend to buy a car outright!

[Habeas Domus]

The sting in the tail with the NHS company car scheme is that when you have to drive business miles you'll only get about 10p per mile. If you had your own car you would get something like 33p per mile.

As petrol prices go up some of those porsche drivers will start regretting the choice.

Also the part a lot of people forget is the tax implications, a gas guzzling car will mean adjusting your tax code so that the govt gets most of the 4K back in tax anyway.

another complete non story from the DAILY MAIL

[Si1]

it is hard to understand what they need company cars for in middle management of a non-sales-oriented organisation??

[porca misèria]

Sounds like they give a £4500 car allowance, rather than a gift-wrapped Porsche. Total non-story if so.

In my last job (private sector) I had no use for a car but still got £8400/year car allowance. Since I don't want a car, I took it as cash. I don't know what kind of lease car I'd've got for that money.

It's a perk. No more, no less. I'd much rather it was just paid in the up-front salary figure, but that's not my decision.

[RichB]

Thanks for the explanations. Something doesn't sound quite right though.

If a middle manager or average bureaucrat can afford to drive a recent model porsche, something tells me I'm paying him too much. I can imagine the odd car enthusiast using an allowance to indulge himself while cutting back on everything else but the article indicates this is not a unique occurrence.

And £4,000 a year allowance? That's twice what I spend to buy a car outright!

These days they probably live rent free at mums. Not much chance of them being able to buy a house... that ain't right for a start.

Rent free + car allowance + reasonable income + bloke = fanny magnet motor.

Whether or not cars work that way or not is moot...

[200p]

Nhs Desk Worker Gets £37K Porsche Boxster Sports Car Funded By The Taxpayer money printer.

Remember there's still a deficit.

[mattT]

Because if they get £4,500 per annum car allowance that's less than you would get in a lot of private sector jobs. I get more than that as my car allowance. I could hire a Corvette but when the money had gone after a couple of weeks, transport would be at my own expense.

Me too. I used to get 280 pcm car allowance in the private sector and that was 10 years ago. I kept the cash instead of getting a car, and could then afford to live nearer the office. Each to their own.

Some people need to think about what they're reading, who is writing it and why.

[Timak]

I don't think anyone could argue this is a good reallocation of funds.. unless you would like to try..?

Without numbers attached to percentage rises they are fairly meaningless.

I've increased spending on XBox games by 50% in the last year (I spent £15 on a game compared to £10 the year before ) but my food and shelter are only increased by 30% (from £10k a year to £13k a year)

I also find it very hard to believe the management costs increased by 50% from 2007 onwards in the NHS. I've put HR systems into NHS related areas and the reports I've done have shown nothing like that in any of those organisations.

[libspero]

I also find it very hard to believe the management costs increased by 50% from 2007 onwards in the NHS. I've put HR systems into NHS related areas and the reports I've done have shown nothing like that in any of those organisations.

Since you have first hand knowledge of how NHS funding is being distributed, and given that the budget has doubled in ten years.. could you shed some light on where this money is going?

Do we have twice as many hospitals? three times as many nurses? or have we just expanded management and given twice as much to Glaxo and Pfizer?

I would be genuinely interested to know how they are spending twice as much. Given that Andrew Lansley is on record as referring to the NHS's "spiralling management costs" and that drug spending has gone through the roof I'm pretty sure it doesn't take an expert. But as you say.. you have access to inside information, so where is the money being spent?

Edited April 26, 2011 by libspero

[tomandlu]

it is hard to understand what they need company cars for in middle management of a non-sales-oriented organisation??

A lot of them have multiple roles at different hospitals - for example, an NHS IT guy I'm currently working with on one project is also juggling 4 other projects, and 3 of them are at another hospital in a different city.

I have no idea if that is the case here, and I have mixed views (from experience) as to whether this approach works, but you'd be surprised how much moving around goes on for both clinical and non-clinical staff. Nursing and secretarial and similar seem to stay in one place, and I'm guessing/hoping upper-management are pretty much single-site based, but every one else seems to be constantly on the move...

[Si1]

Since you have first hand knowledge of how NHS funding is being distributed, and given that the budget has doubled in ten years.. could you shed some light on where this money is going?

Do we have twice as many hospitals? three times as many nurses? or have we just expanded management and given twice as much to Glaxo and Pfizer?

I would be genuinely interested to know how they are spending twice as much. Given that Andrew Lansley is on record as referring to the NHS's "spiralling management costs" and that drug spending has gone through the roof I'm pretty sure it doesn't take an expert. But as you say.. you have access to inside information, so where is the money being spent?

just becasue it isn't classified as management spending in the HR database does not mean it is not management spending - all sorts of other ways of accounting, indirectly, for empire-building avarice

[@contradevian]

Guaranteed that the spending on "desk jobs" and car allowances is out stripping that on patient care. 100% guaranteed as they say.

In the private sector, whole tiers of admins vanished due to something called "IT." In the NHS some kind of reverse law is in effect.

Edited April 26, 2011 by Sir John Steed

[Si1]

A lot of them have multiple roles at different hospitals - for example, an NHS IT guy I'm currently working with on one project is also juggling 4 other projects, and 3 of them are at another hospital in a different city.

I have no idea if that is the case here, and I have mixed views (from experience) as to whether this approach works, but you'd be surprised how much moving around goes on for both clinical and non-clinical staff. Nursing and secretarial and similar seem to stay in one place, and I'm guessing/hoping upper-management are pretty much single-site based, but every one else seems to be constantly on the move...

that's fair enough, but happens in multi-site private organisations, and also still in public sector organisations like universities and libraries, and they don't get allowances, just expenses for each trip - 20 minutes a month to fill in the claim forms(edit - or use a pool car or part of a corporate hire agreement, etc)

Edited April 26, 2011 by Si1