Millhouse

This is shocking, really.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21027176

scot47

Does not apply in Scotland since policing is a devolved matter !

dubaiguy2011

Please your reasons why this is shocking?

Beakersful

It doesn't look too bad really. There is a sliding scale, and higher potential earnings. Be interesting to see how much corruption it causes within the situation we have of high rents and cost of living versus that 19 grand. We may find young coppers desperate and taking backhanders, looking the other way, and then they're in the pockets of criminals for the rest of their career.

Kix

£19k for a wet behind the ears just left school cuntstable?

Overpaid if you ask me.

The Dean

Agree. All we seem to hear is 'you need a degree for any job these days' but this isn't bad as a starting point...........

Will this be retrospective? Someone who has already started on the 4,000-higher scale will have to take a cut?

Ronnie Biggs

I don't see much wrong with this to be honest. We have too many policeman stuck behind desks anyway so this is probably just 19k for an admin bird = about right.

During Labour's tenure it seems the public sector got completely out of hand, as did immigration, spending, lack of controls over the financial sector etc etc. It's good to see the current lot bringing the UK back to some form of reality. Blair and Brown should be utterly ashamed of the cluster**** country they handed over really.....

scrubbedexpat141

Seems pretty reasonable.

Millhouse

... And how do you all feel that the MPs recently voted for a 30% payrise taking them to around 80k + benefits?

... I assume you are all comfortable with the next logical step: cuts to the fireservice.

scrubbedexpat141

MPs are *****, this is fact.

I think a starting salary of 23k is quite a lot.

It also seems reasonable that the pay grades are less now so you can progress quicker, that seems better. Do well, get more. Smart.

I've got no idea how the fire service compares money wise...

Millhouse

The fact is that any changes to the reward system done at this time will be in an effort to cut it. They have killed the pension scheme (the only reason worth joining the force in the first place).

Don't confuse cutting costs with cutting salaries. There is a lot of management/administrative fat in the police force that should be cut, not front line staff. One thing that will be true is that the cuts won't affect the back office nearly as hard as the front - quite the reverse of what should be the case.

I regularly meet, highly skilled, highly trained police who have quit the job to become (effectively) taxi drivers for G4 in Kabul. Double money, arguably less risk and no tax. The average kid on the street would rather take a 15k + incentives job in a call centre than the crappy 19k offering in the police force.

scrubbedexpat141

Some people want to be coppers and this should weed out the ones who see it as a decent salary and pension and easyish money.

You're 100% correct though, I'm sure the fat lies beneath rather than on the beat.

Ronnie Biggs

Again, I applaud that too. I don't want anyone leading the country that can't command 80k + benefits. We should be aspiring to attract the very best.

Copper admin clerk 19k = fine, about right
MP leader of the people 80k = probably a bit light

Millhouse, what happened to you man? Did the people at the Socialist Worker get to you?

Myusernamewastaken

Do you believe that yourself? A friend of mine turned down an interview with an airline that wanted about 40K pounds from the prospective employee just to let him work (flying with passengers) for 500 hours. The norm is to "only" ask for the cost of a type rating which could be 25K pounds. On top of that, the education to get the bare licences could have costed around 35K to 100K pounds.

What I try to say is that salary is far from the only reason why someone would choose a particular job.

Cypselos

The issue with the MPs is that they're the very epitome of a public servant, and they're voting themselves massive pay rises while enforcing cuts on everyone in the public sector.