Top staff at the DVLA have received bonuses totalling more than £2m - despite the organisation apologising earlier this year for long delays in processing paper driving licence applications. It's understood these extra payments have been given whilst the government agency still has a huge backlog in cases of more than 300,000 applications, although the Swansea-based DVLA has said turnaround times on applications are now at normal levels.
According to the Daily Express, Department for Transport records show a whopping £2,163,414 was paid in "non-consolidated bonuses" to staff at the Agency for the financial year, 2021 to 2022. The newspaper said this was despite a huge reported backlog of 1.2m delayed applications earlier in the pandemic - and also follows claims earlier this year that thousands of staff were paid their full wages at the Agency despite not completing any work while based at home.
Commenting on the staff bonuses, Conservative MP David Jones described the situation as "outrageous". "The perception of the DVLA is at rock bottom," he said. "There are people across the country bitterly inconvenienced. If we were talking about payments to MPs, the country would be up in arms. The country will also be up in arms that £2 million of bonuses are being handed out to people who have let them down so badly." You can get more Swansea news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
