Civil servants fund holidays by creaming off thousands on flights deal

In an extraordinary – but not illegal – arrangement, hundreds of civil servants and their partners sent outside Europe can claim the cost of very expensive business-class flights – but then travel economy and keep the difference for private flights.

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Instead of the savings – which can be thousands of pounds per trip – being returned to the taxpayer, the cash can be ploughed into a personal 'travel fund' and then used to pay for that employee's private trips.

This generous 'flexible travel scheme' is run for staff at the Department for International Development (DFID), which has offices around the world.

A price check yesterday revealed that DFID staff travelling with British Airways could net thousands of pounds, simply by going economy class.

For example, a civil servant travelling out to DFID offices in South Africa today can travel economy one-way to Johannesburg for £715 – a 'saving' of almost £3,000 on the business/club class ticket of £3,654. To Beijing, the perk is worth £2,491.

Any ticket savings made by a civil servant's partner also count towards the travel fund. A civil servant posted overseas for more than two years is entitled to two extra trips home – with a partner, that would be 12 slices of these taxpayer-funded "savings" during a three-year posting, almost £36,000 based on the quoted one-way South Africa fare.

Details of the scheme – for staff sent overseas for more than four months – were released after International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander was challenged by Tory aid spokesman Andrew Mitchell to come clean.

The department's Overseas terms and conditions guide, seen by The Mail on Sunday, says: "Under DFID's flexible travel scheme, employees can use their and their family's travel entitlements to get away more frequently by downgrading their class of travel (and/or) transfer entitlements between their family."

People posted outside Europe are provided with "outward and homeward business-class passage" at the start and end of their assignment but can downgrade the ticket to pay for other trips anywhere they want to go.

"If an employee opts to downgrade their class of travel or use an alternative route, then any savings will be credited to their travel fund," the guide says.

A spokeswoman said the scheme was now under review but defended the idea of funding breaks for employees, saying: "DFID's employees and their families are increasingly working and living in difficult and dangerous environments. Additional journeys were introduced to allow staff and families based in difficult locations to take a break from their post to rest and recuperate elsewhere."

The spokeswoman added that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had a similar scheme for diplomats.

But Mr Mitchell last night insisted the scheme needs an overhaul.

"DFID staff have to be properly paid for what they do and their costs should be reimbursed as necessary. But this is an extraordinarily generous perk which, frankly, you would not find in the private sector.

"Given that this scheme is run by the Government department charged with helping some of the poorest countries in the world to develop, why aren't the savings ploughed straight back into the UK's international aid budget?"