Northern Rock owes the taxpayer £30billion but is lavishing pay rises and bonuses on staff

Christmas bonus, even though the bank owes the taxpayer almost £30billion.

Customers of the beleaguered bank called the pay rises 'disgraceful and entirely inappropriate' last night.

All 6,000 employees were given a £200 bonus and a 2 per cent one-off sum - in addition to a 4 per cent increase.

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The extra cash is in part a reward for the "challenging times and heavy demands" that have been placed upon staff because of the recent turmoil.

The package comes only two months after the Government bailed out the bank with taxpayers' money.

The amount it owes the taxpayer now stands at £29billion.

The total award for an average employee earning £25,000 would leave them £1,700 better off.

But the package is awarded to all staff up to and including assistant directors.

Their salary can range up to £100,000. At the highest level this could mean a total bonus package of £6,200.

"This is disgraceful and entirely inappropriate," said customer Robin Ashby, who has shares and savings in Northern Rock.

"A discredited management team is rewarding employees for their failure and I'm sure all customers and investors will be furious.

"Northern Rock is a family business and we are all supposed to be shareholders, but clearly some shareholders are being treated more equally than others."

Father-of three Mr Ashby, 55, is now a spokesman for hundreds of small shareholders who have lost money since the crisis broke and share prices plunged.

"These are people who are relying on Northern Rock for a little extra comfort in their old age or to put their children through university,' he said. "My shares were worth £6,000 at their peak, now they are £600.

"Why should employees, who have good pay packages anyway, be rewarded when we lose money?"

Staff across the country were told of the surprising decision in a hand-delivered letter from personnel director Lynne Griffin and union representative Russell Greig on Friday.

The letter read: 'Since September 2007 the company has experienced challenging times and heavy demands have been placed upon our staff. It is felt that the efforts of staff should be recognised."

Matt Sinclair, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "They should be getting pay cuts, not pay rises. Apparently the meaning of performance-related pay is lost on staff at Northern Rock. What performance?

"Their failure has put tens of billions of taxpayers' money at risk with billions unlikely to ever be recovered."

The Government has already paid more than £29billion to save the bank from collapse, but this could rise to £45billion by February if a buyer is not found.

Reports over the weekend suggested that Virgin's bid for the lender may yet be scuppered because backers Deutsche Bank has serious issues with the proposed takeover. Both sides deny this.

Northern Rock had assets of £113billion in July, but £50billion of that was represented by mortgage loans which have already been sold on. Another £8billion of bonds was already sold on and a further £7.5billion is made-up of unsecured loans.

Savers have withdrawn more than £10.5billion from deposit accounts, leaving total assets of £37billion.

Even Northern Rock's own employees were shocked by the pay package.

One said: "We were just glad to still have our jobs at Christmas, let alone an aboveinflation pay rise and bonuses."

The 2 per cent bonus was described by a company spokesman as a "thank-you for all their hard work over the year, and in particular the last couple of months".