LONDON: Bonuses paid out by banks and insurers since the start of the financial crisis are set to top £100bn this year, according to the Robin Hood Tax campaign.
As this year’s bonus season is in full swing, the campaigners analysed data from the Office for National Statistics. It shows that bonuses paid out in the financial sector have reached £91bn since October 2007. This figure is likely to exceed £100bn by the end of March, the end of the financial year.
This equates to £1,500 for every man, woman and child in the UK. Last year, Britain’s financial sector paid out £15bn in bonuses. A small number of investment bankers earn more in a year than most people do in a lifetime.
David Hillman of the Robin Hood Tax campaign, a group of 119 UK organisations including Barnardo’s, Comic Relief, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Stamp Out Poverty and the TUC, said: “This eye-popping sum is evidence we live in a two-tier Britain where an unreformed financial sector continues to pocket huge rewards while the rest of us are left to clear up their mess.
We’ve given the Square Mile far too long a leash – the result has been a sector that feathers its own nest despite being embroiled in one scandal after another. Our softly-softly approach to the City clearly has not worked – it’s time we tackled this bloated sector by ensuring they pay more tax.”
