Officers urged to apply for “Winsor” bonus payments

THE Police Federation is urging officers to make use of the force’s bonus payment scheme.

South Yorkshire Police has a budget of £30,000 a year for these bonuses – of between £50 and £500 if officers have performed a “piece of work of an outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important nature – but it is consistently under-spent as officers appear not to be applying for the payments. 

Teams can also apply for a bonus payment, a new award that was implemented in April 2012 following the first Tom Winsor review.

Teams are entitled to apply for a payment of £50 and £100 per member for “outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important work but also for outstanding work for the public”.

Officers simply need to complete a form, which must go through their supervisory chain, including their district departmental head.

The applications are considered four times a year by a panel, which includes Neil Bowles, chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation.

Mr Bowles said the bonus scheme currently appears to be used to compensate officers in a similar way to the old allowance for officers dealing with decomposed bodies. However, the new bonus scheme is much wider in scope and can also be used to award officers for important and outstandingly demanding work.