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Bonus payments worth as much as £17,500 are being given to top officials in the Department for Work and Pensions, it has emerged.

More than 60 senior civil servants in the department – which is in charge of the welfare system, including the botched roll-out of Universal Credit – were given awards at an average of £9,600.

SNP MSP Shona Robison slammed the news and told the Daily Record : “People will rightly be asking questions about where the DWP’s priorities lie.

“They scrapped the £10 bonus for people struggling over Christmas and inflicted cuts on low-income families across Scotland but are rewarding senior staff with huge bonuses.

“The Tory Government is letting the most vulnerable people in society down first with a system which overwhelmingly benefits the rich while low-income families are forced to choose between paying their rent and feeding their children.”

(Image: PA)

The DWP’s bonus figures emerged in a freedom of information request seen by the Daily Record.

Details of awards were given depending on pay scale, including for grade six staff who earn about £70,000.

They said 183 grade six employees were given awards of £1,450 in the financial year 2017-18.

The most senior civil servants got between £9,500 and £17,500 in performance awards, averaging £9,600.

More than 55,000 staff in admin, executive officers and higher executive roles got £500.

A DWP spokesman said: “It is right that we support our employees by recognising good performance and for senior civil servants performance-related awards are restricted to top performers only.”