Pay Survey: Officers Are Stressed And Anxious About Money And Workload

11 January 2023

A shocking eight in ten Kent Police officers are worse off financially than they were five years ago, new research has revealed.

New figures show that an astonishing 97% of Kent Police officers said their cost of living had increased in the past month, with an increase in the price of their food shop being the most-cited reason.

And 16% said they ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ have enough money to cover all their essentials, according to the Police Federation of England and Wales 2022 Pay and Morale Survey.

1,696 Kent officers took part in the research, which found eight in ten to be ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with their overall remuneration.

Last year police officers across England and Wales were given an average of a 5% pay rise – but this was way below inflation booming now at more than 10%. Household bills are rising sharply and over the past 12 years police officer pay has fallen in real terms by 25%.

Neil Mennie, Chair of Kent Police Federation, praised colleagues for taking the time to complete the survey. He said the figures were not surprising, especially given increases in the cost of living and the below-inflation pay rise for officers.

He said: “All these things have led to a picture that you would expect – officers with low morale, some struggling with the cost of living and with far too much work and not enough resources. And very slowly it seems to be getting worse due to those factors.

“It's not a surprise and I think that, aside from pay, there are a lot of other things that, policing generally at the moment, is in a state of disrepair and some work needs to be done. Some attention needs to be paid to try and make this the profession that it should be and make it enjoyable for our officers to be at work.

“I think individual forces, including ours, have to look at the overall package for police officers and be creative around the way that they can enhance the package as a whole.

“Here in Kent we’re now at the maximum Southeast Allowance. We have a new Chief Constable who has some ideas that I hope will reduce officer workload and will actually spread our resources to those departments that are struggling.

“In particular, we see in the survey that an awful lot of officers say there’s just not enough people on their teams to support the roles they’re doing.”

The survey also found that officers feel stressed and overworked. Half said their morale was low and a shocking 91% said that they do not feel respected by the Government.

Two thirds would not recommend joining the service to others and 15% said they intend to resign from the police service either ‘within the next two years’ or ‘as soon as [they] can’, blaming morale, pay and how the police are treated by the Government.

Wellbeing has also taken a hit in Kent, with 42% of respondents saying that they find their job ‘very’ or ‘extremely stressful’; and 84% indicating that they had experienced feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety, or other difficulties with their health and wellbeing over the last 12 months.

Sadly, 16% had suffered one or more injuries that required medical attention as a result of work-related violence in the last year.

Neil added: “When you look at the things like cost of travel, when you look at health and wellbeing, which the survey also includes, we’ve got officers stressed and anxious far more than we would like them to be. And you couple that with a high workload and long hours, there’s more work to be done than just money. That’s a really important element, but it’s not the only thing at play here for police officers.”

Neil did say that help was available to officers who were struggling financially. He explained: “Those officers that are struggling, we would need them to come forward and speak to the force and perhaps speak to our benevolent fund.

“There are services that are available to help them, and we understand sometimes it can be somewhat embarrassing and upsetting to be in this position. But of course we need those people to be open and come froward, in confidence, so they can be helped either by the force, by the benevolent fund or, to a lesser extent, by us, to signpost them and to do what we can to help them.

“Because I suspect these surveys, because they’re anonymous, are probably a comfortable place for people to write how they truly feel, but that’s a lot different and a lot harder to actually say to the force, ‘I’m struggling’.”