The ironic outcomes of the bureaucratic mind

Part the second: paying a 'stipend' not to work.
What's wrong with paying a stipend not to work? After all a stipend is a payment made as a kind of retainer to make sure that a person needs not take other work to support themselves or their family; in particular so that a priest may dedicate themselves to the work of their office. Well, let me tell you how not doing joined up thinking costs money.

Remember first that my post is being made redundant as a result of financial constraints, ostensibly. In short, the diocese of Bradford can't afford to do everything it once did and so savings have to be made and so the post of Anglican Chaplain to the University of Bradford and Bradford College will no longer be funded by the Diocese of Bradford. This saves a stipend of c.£18k p.a [plus on costs]. They would have you believe that it saves c.£30k pa with on-costs but since that figure is probably made up of a c. £7k estimate of the value to the clergybeing of a tied house when the actual costs are probably £2k-£3k pa, well, let's say I'm a little skeptical [not least because we are in effect in the position of having to rent our house from our employer, if one is going to add the value to our 'package' -like being paid in factory tokens in the industrial revolution]. I may be wrong on this, but if so then I'd like to see how the £30k figure is arrived at.

Let's remember too that part of the plan is probably to sell the chaplaincy centre which, at todays' rates is likely to realize a per annum income of about £10k [perhaps a bit more].

So, where's this going? Tracy is an ordinand sponsored by the diocese and so under current arrangements, since she is full-time in training, when we move as a family to [in this case] Durham, the diocese have to rent a house for us [at rates higher than Bradford rents] and, if I am not employed, they are committed to paying a family allowance of not much short of a stipend, in effect. Of course the money comes from a different budget and doesn't involve as many on-costs. But meantime there is no shortage of potential work I could have been doing at the university for that money which is all coming from the diocesan funds ultimately. Some of that work would have paved the way for the possibility [strong in my opinion] of the university making a contribution to the chaplaincies.
Can you see where the gaps that might easily have been joined up are? I'm sure you can.

In the meantime, of course, I'm well-nigh unemployable as a priest since a real issue will be for many whether they really want to have someone for just a couple of years, quite possibly. I know that in the USA two years is apparently normal, but in Britain it's not, and to go in to interview with it implicit by the fact of having a wife who is in training [because, of course, wives are part of the package] ... Good job the retirement age is 70, I may need it to catch up on my lost years of service contributory to pension.

Previous Ironic outcomes, and following ...