Gov Overspend Tops £60m

Gov spending was £61m over budget in the last financial year, including £34m on employee costs and £6.5m on revenue-funded benefits as high levels of inflation hit the public purse.

However, the year ended £46.5m better than budget as a result of additional taxation receipts and £61.5m of fund claims.

The figures have been published in the management accounts for the revenue-funded bodies in central gov (please stick with us, it gets interesting from here out).

Employee costs were over budget due to the inflation-based pay awards, which included our dear MHKs and MLCs getting a pay rise.

Manx Care and DESC were the worst affected of the taxpayer funded services, with DESC being £8m over budget due to pay awards and additional staffing, while Manx Care’s cost included £14m of agency staff covering vacant posts.

Also included in the employee costs category is Public Sector Pensions which were £4m over budget for the year.

During the year Treasury supported those on lower incomes with four cost of living schemes. Two of those – the Family Support Payment and the Energy Support – were funded by general revenue. Whilst the total cost was £8.8m, £6.9m of that was reimbursed from the Contingency Fund.

An upside of high wage inflation is that Income Tax was £24.5m better than expected. Customs income was also better as a £20m provision relating to Covid was released. However, Department income is still catching up in some areas post Covid. Income in DOI was £1.9m below budget with DESC being £840k below

Energy costs were almost £5m (60%) over budget at £13.6m. Gas was 100% more than the budget of £3m and electricity was £1.8m over its budget of £5m.

Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson told Gef: ‘It shows how challenging last year was financially and the ongoing pressures on government spending coming into the current year.’