by Ruth Banks

Kent Police pays out more than £9million a year on 350 staff who already draw generous force pensions, KentOnline can reveal.

The workers are ex-police men or women who have been re-hired or retained while drawing their pension.

One retired officer is earning at least £60,769 on top of a gold-plated public sector pension.

And eight per cent of the force’s total budget for civilian staff is being paid to former officers.

Campaigners from the Taxpayers’ Alliance have described it as a "double whammy" that taxpayers can’t afford.

Campaign director Mark Wallace said: "I think it’s quite remarkable that so many police staff are being paid salaries at the same time as the police are paying their pensions.

"This is effectively paying twice for these employees."

Kent Police said several of the officers have been kept on through a scheme designed to keep police numbers at a steady level.

It works by smoothing out recruitment bulges and corresponding retirement bulges.

In these cases, their salary and pension together are capped at the level of their salary prior to retirement.

Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas said: "In terms of value for money for the county, it costs no more to employ a retired police officer than it does any other member of the public.

"It is understandable in the present economic climate that public spending should be under close scrutiny, but this is not a case of abuse of the system.

"[It] is, in fact, good value for the public in retaining a huge range of skills and experience."

But the issue has sparked a debate on whether the police pension should be reformed.

"We need to look at extending the amount of time police work before being able to claim their pension," said Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers' Alliance.

"People are retiring with 40 or 50 years of productive life ahead of them and that’s extremely expensive.

"We’ve trained these people up and now we’re either saying goodbye to them, or letting them leave the police then recruiting them in another job which is doubly costly."

Kent Police maintain the pension is good value for money.

"Police officers work for at least 30 years before retiring and contribute 11 per cent of salary towards their pension.

"This is far greater than workers in other organisations and industries" said Ass Ch Con Thomas.

"Police officers don’t have a pension that’s given to them," added Ian Pointon, chairman of the Kent Police Federation.

"They pay handsomely for that pension. So this is not about getting something for nothing."