Lowest paid at Wolverhampton Council accounted for 90% of redundancies

Only one person received a combined salary and redundancy package of more than £100,000 at Wolverhampton City Council in 2013/14.

But 474 staff got payouts of less than £20,000, out of 546 in total who either left voluntarily or from a compulsory redundancy.

It comes as bosses reveal they will spend a further £5 million on redundancies this year – leaving them with £12m left in their reserves.

Of 22 senior officers at the local authority, only one – former assistant director of schools, skills and learning Tim Westwood – has left the council so far in the redundancy scheme, getting a 'termination benefit' of £63,415.

In 2013/14, of the 546 who have left the council, 36 received packages above £50,000.

Opposition leader Councillor Wendy Thompson said the fact so many lower-paid staff were being let go was already having a detrimental effect on services. "The lower-paid staff are in very valued occupations – they're on the front line delivering services to residents," she said. "And residents are noticing the difference this is making.

"They quite rightly demand the same standard of service but they're seeing a clear deterioration. People are concerned about the future – there are many more jobs still to go. I think there are fine lines here.

"They need to be very careful about what they're doing." Up to 2,000 jobs will go in total as bosses make £123m of savings by 2019.

Finance bosses will spend £5m on redundancies in 2013/14, after spending £11.5m in the past two years.

It will leave the general fund balance – essentially spare cash for a rainy day – at just £12m.

As recently as 2011 this figure was £41m, but is still higher than a predicted low of between £1m and £2m that bosses were fearing last year.

Finance councillor Andrew Johnson said the £12m spare cash figure was 'acceptable' and £2m above the council's target of £10m. He added: "There is an inevitable cost in doing what the Government is forcing us to do – which is effectively reducing the size of the council by a third. When making people redundant there are one-off costs in terms of pay and pension contributions, but the long-term savings far outweigh this initial outlay."