Here's a couple of pretty scams. Nice work if you can get it.
The first scam concerns the CEO of the Anchor Trust, Jane Ashcroft, who reportedly has seen her pay rise by £35,000 over the past 4 years to an eye-watering £420,000 pa. The Chair of Anchor Trust trotted out the wholly familiar excuse for this state of affairs that "Anchor is a large and complex organisation .... competing successfully with commercial care providers". You can see what the Chair means: apparently last year's accounts show 28.6% - more than 1 in 4 - of its care homes were failing to comply with Care Quality Commission standards.
The second scam concerns the CEO of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Peter Herring (who 'only' earns £185,000 pa which the Chair of Anchor Trust should note). Apparently this scam among senior NHS managers allows them to draw a pension alongside a full-time job provided they "retire" for 24 hours and then do no more than 16 hours a week for the following month (who checks? how?). By this device, Peter Herring pocketed a £252,000 tax-free lump sum. As always, there's someone to defend the indefensible. In this case Tom McPhail, "head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown", who is reported to have said it "does look pretty contrived" but followed increasingly common practice in the public sector.
(Source for both stories The Times today 21 April 2015).
It bothers me that both these stories concern public services and public servants - the first a registered charity and the second the NHS. It seems it's not just Bankers and MPs (and footballers and Non-Doms) who dip their sticky paws in the trough.