The Big Bung Theory

Super Councils, The name makes them seem as they're gonna be great like 'superman' when realistically they're going be a bigger balls up of red tape, egos and party politics. The simple fact is people at the moment get pissed off at councils, imagine how its going to be when they go super!

What's interesting is that in advance of this change from useless local councils to completely useless supercouncils is that current councillors who have x amount of years of service can get an extra golden handshake of up to £30,000, yup THIRTY THOUSAND QUID. The SDLP's Alex Attwood said the extra money was for councillors who worked hard for long years, "often through the worst of the disorder and violence in Northern Ireland".

Councillors earn a basic payment of about £10,000 a year. More than half of the current 582 councillors could apply for this money providing they meet certain criteria. 

It has been proposed that severance payments should be paid to those who decide not to stand to reward them for their service. The maximum amount a councillor can receive is capped at £35,000 and, just like any other severance scheme, the first £30,000 would be tax free. 

Taking Alex Attwoods comments that the extra money was for councillors who worked hard for long years, "often through the worst of the disorder and violence in Northern Ireland". 

What about the bus men, post office workers, milk me, teachers, self employed shop keepers who worked hard for long years through the worst of the disorder and violence in Northern Iron?

What about those who were unable to work because of the troubles? 

What about those families who lost their main breadwinner during the troubles and were paid a pittance in compensation?

As usual this is nothing more than the politicians giving themselves a golden pat on the back, but like everything here they still can't agree on the way the scheme has been designed.

I doubt many of the average voters would ever get a thirty grand golden handshake when leaving a company, they might get a watch or a clock, or when the Invest NI grant runs out kicked out and their job relocated as the company moves on. 

But lets look at the average redundancy using the online Government redundancy calculator, and not even taking into consideration that many councillors had 'another' job along with their council role, or if they chaired a committee etc they got more money. 

Lets just take this as their one job they're being made redundant from. And truth be told they're not being made redundant they're making a decision to leave at the end of a fixed term contract. Their 'interview' for a new contract is the election, but each election winners begin a new fixed term contract.

The online calculator only goes to 2013, so we input the following.

What date were you made redundant?

1 April 2013

How old were you on the date you were made redundant?

60

How many years have you worked for your employer?

30

What is your weekly pay before tax and any other deductions?

£200

Based on your answers, your statutory redundancy payment is £5,900.

How it’s worked out

Your entitlement is 29.5 weeks.

You get:

• 0.5 week’s pay for each full year you were under 22
• 1 week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or older, but under 41
• 1.5 week’s pay for each full year you were 41 or older

Length of service is capped at 20 years and weekly pay at £450. Years of service or earnings over these amounts aren’t included in the calculation.

The maximum amount of statutory redundancy pay is £13,500.

Redundancy pay under £30,000 is not taxable.

Nice work if you can get it!