RBS ‘specialist workers’ paid £400 to stuff envelopes

According to a report published by the Press Association, the still 62 per cent state-owned, bailed-out lender, paid individuals £330 a day plus VAT to carry out mundane tasks such as sending PPI letters to customers, despite being recruited to take on skilled-roles.

The revelations are likely to cause embarrassment to current RBS chief executive Ross McEwan, who overseen a strategy of cost cutting that has meant years of job losses and branch closures.

The report claims the cash was paid during certain periods in 2017 and this year at an office in Manchester.

Those working on the project said that they were originally hired to work as specialists, but were then told to put letters in envelopes because of management disorganisation.

“It is purely because they have no organisational skills on the project we were on and was a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” said one contractor who worked on the project, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Typical envelope-stuffing jobs are paid at the minimum wage, meaning taxpayers have lost out to the tune of thousands of pounds, although the exact figure is unknown as RBS has not disclosed the total number of people receiving the bumper pay rate.

Responding to the report, RBS said in a statement: “We do not hire contractors at this rate to do this type of work.

“When we employ contractors, they are paid in line with industry rates according to their experience and skills.

“There have been a limited number of occasions when we have used short-term support from other areas of our business to ensure we are delivering on time and in line with our commitments for our customers.”