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A review of police pay and conditions in England and Wales has called for the abolition of a series of allowances and special payments.
Former rail regulator Tom Winsor recommends making savings of £60m a year in overtime.He also suggests suspending chief officer and superintendent bonuses.
Meanwhile, the Association of Chief Police Officers says government cuts will claim 28,000 officer and civilian staff jobs in the next four years.
Mr Winsor says his recommendations will produce savings of £485m over three years.
He says police earn 10 to 15% more than other emergency workers and the armed forces and in some areas they are paid up to 60% more than average local earnings.
The independent review calls for an end to the £1,212 competence-related threshold payment, the Special Priority Payment of up to £5,000 and says no officers should move up the pay scale for two years.
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“Start Quote
End QuoteThe men and women the government's preparing to take on are the very same people who will be expected to be in the front line when ministers face the anger of others whose pay and pensions and jobs and services will be cut”
The government is planning to cut its funding for the police by 20% by 2014-15.
The 43 forces in England and Wales currently employ about 244,000 people, comprising 143,000 police officers and 101,000 civilians.The Acpo estimate for job losses has been made in a confidential memo to ministers published in the Guardian.
It predicts the jobs of 12,000 police officers and 16,000 civilian staff will be lost as a result of spending cuts.
Greater Manchester Chief Constable Peter Fahy confirmed the job loss forecast - representing a reduction of about 12% of posts - to the Guardian.
He said: "We will have fewer staff, the same or more demands, and will need to incentivise staff to produce higher quality."
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says the Acpo figures are the latest and most reliable figures on police job cuts since Chancellor George Osborne's Spending Review last October.
'Very angry'
But Acpo said overtime was needed to allow forces "to respond flexibly to any event or crime at any time whether it be a flood, a major murder investigation or public order incident".
Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the proposed cuts in police funding come after a two-year pay freeze for officers.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "For many officers it is going to mean them losing their homes or not being able to put the heating on.
"That is the reality for people out there and they are very angry and upset about a government that is out of touch and doesn't understand policing."
Mr McKeever said there was "spin and negative stories coming from Home Office advisers" who used "isolated examples" to suggest officers were regularly claiming excessive and unjustified overtime.
Home Secretary Theresa May has warned that reductions in police pay are "unavoidable" in order to minimise front-line job losses.
Speaking at the weekend, she said: "We are working with police forces to identify savings that actually go beyond the reduction on the central policing grant in the next four years."
Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "We have to deal with the deficit, and police forces can and must make savings, focusing on back and middle office functions like IT and procurement so that front-line services can be protected.
"But when three-quarters of force budgets goes on pay, reform of pay and conditions is also essential to protect police jobs and keep officers on the streets."
'Blind arrogance' Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the figures were the "latest nail in the coffin for the prime minister's claim that he would protect the front line at all costs".
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End Quote Rob Garnham Association of Police AuthoritiesPolice authorities are ready for the challenge of change, to deliver a modern, effective pay system that delivers value for money”
"Chief constables are being put in an impossible position by a government that seems happy to ride roughshod over public safety and the morale of the police force," she said.
"The government is cutting too far and too fast with 20% frontloaded cuts."The home secretary and her ministers have a blind arrogance in their dealings with the police.
"Rather than working with them, they are bludgeoning police numbers, their budgets and their operational capacity."
The Association of Police Authorities said the Winsor review was a "once in a generation opportunity to see police pay reformed".
APA Chairman Rob Garnham said: "Police authorities are ready for the challenge of change, to deliver a modern, effective pay system that delivers value for money. This means a system that is fair to both police officers and staff and the taxpayer."
Blair Gibbs, from the right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange, said the review was "long overdue" as current working arrangements were "outdated".
"We need pay and conditions that reflect the white collar workforce... that we want policing in the 21st Century to be with many more graduates, many more women, more civilian trained staff supporting the police, and that means, ultimately, modern working conditions."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12672329
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