Truss and Kwarteng given more than £16,000 each after leaving office | Liz Truss

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng received about £400 in severance pay for every day they were in office, according to government accounts published on Thursday.

The former prime minister and former chancellor each received more than £16,000 on leaving their jobs after just a few weeks, the Treasury’s annual report shows, while Tom Scholar, the department’s most senior civil servant, received £457,000 after being sacked by Truss.

The figures are contained in a series of annual reports from across government, which also show that Boris Johnson was given a payout of £18,660 after quitting as prime minister.

Truss and her allies saw Scholar, who was sacked on her first day in office, as representative of orthodox Treasury thinking, which they were determined to overhaul as part of their plan to bring in much lower UK tax rates.

Meanwhile the Department for Transport’s accounts show that Grant Shapps received £16,876 after quitting as transport secretary in September, even though he returned to government as home secretary six weeks later. He is now energy secretary.

Rishi Sunak, who spent just over three months out of government between quitting as chancellor and becoming prime minister, handed back his payout of the same amount.

Labour criticised Johnson and Truss for taking their payments after resigning, the former after a series of ethics scandals and the latter amid economic turmoil created by her government’s fiscal policies. UK mortgage rates rocketed after the Truss government’s mini-budget last September and have not returned to the same level since.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “After the mess they left our country in, they should be hanging their heads in embarrassment, not walking away with an enormous payoff. At a time when people up and down the country are struggling to pay their mortgages and put food on the table, it shows a staggering lack of shame for Johnson and Truss to accept this money, but is exactly what we’ve come to expect from a bunch of Tories who only care about themselves.”

Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats said: “This is a slap in the face for all those who have seen their mortgages soar because of Truss and Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget. It is frankly insulting that whilst people struggle with the cost of living crisis, those responsible for their financial hardship are being showered with tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash.”

Under rules introduced in 1991, ministers are eligible to receive three months’ pay as a lump sum on leaving office, though anyone over 65 does not qualify, and nor does anyone who returns to government within three weeks. Ministers are allowed to hand back their payments, as Sunak chose to do.

Truss received £18,660 after spending 49 days in office – equating to £381 a day, while Kwarteng was given £16,876 after 38 days as chancellor – the equivalent to £444. A spokesperson for Truss declined to comment, while Kwarteng did not respond to a request to do so.

Truss and Kwarteng are just two of a series of ministers who received payouts after relatively short periods in office amid the chaos at the top of government last autumn.

Robert Buckland received £16,876 after spending less than four months as Welsh secretary, while Conor Burns was paid £7,920 after spending a month as trade minister.

Civil servants such as Scholar receive one month’s pay for every year of service, up to a maximum of 21 months. Scholar worked in the civil service for 30 years, including six as Treasury permanent secretary, and was sacked by Truss – a move that was partly blamed for the markets’ sudden loss of confidence in UK government debt.

Scholar received a £335,000 severance payment and was an extra £122,000 instead of being given his full notice period.