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Government cash balance reduced by £92million

Mon, 20 Nov 2023


The Isle of Man Governments central government management accounts for 2022/2023 have been released.

The accounts are 12 months to end of March 2023. The data highlights that over the course of the year the cash balance reduced by £92million from £267million to £175million; which is a 34% reduction on the opening balance.  

According to the accounts, expenditure was £61million over budget including £34million on employee costs and £6.5million on revenue-funded benefits.

Employee costs were over budget due to the inflation-based pay awards which were typically around 6%, with some employment groups being higher and some pay awards still to be settled.

The budget had provided for a 2% wage increase so the actual awards of 6%+ created significant cost pressure for all Departments, boards and bodies.

Manx Care and Department of Education, Sport and Culture (DESC) were the worst affected with DESC being £8million over budget due to pay awards and additional staffing for Additional Educational Needs.

Manx Care’s cost included £14million of agency staff covering vacant posts. Also included in the employee costs category is Public Sector Pensions which were £4million over budget for the year.

Energy costs were almost 60% over budget at £13.6million; Gas was 100% more than the budget of £3million whilst electricity was £1.8million over its budget of £5million.

Some of the Covid support schemes were still running in the early part of the year. The cost in 2022/23 was £1.6million but the cumulative total now stands at £136million including £91million which was financed by the NI fund (MERA and the Salary Support Scheme).

The high wage inflation meant that Income Tax was £24.5million better than expected.

The accounts in full can be read here.


 

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