DOZENS of Hampshire firefighters have been left out of pocket by the latest blunder over pay to affect the county's emergency services.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service wrongly deducted a total of £11,000 in pension contributions, which has affected at least 58 staff.

One firefighter had £1,157 debited over an 11-month period, with the average worker losing about £200.

Full-time staff were refunded last month but the number of retained firefighters affected has yet to be revealed.

It comes two months after 1,300 Hampshire police officers received the wrong pay, as previously reported.

The mistake stemmed from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority’s failure to react to regulations introduced in 2013, according to an official report.

Retained firefighters have yet to be refunded because their issues are “more complex”, the report added.

The fire service spokesman was unable to say how many were affected or how much money was taken.

He said: “Deductions were only incorrectly made for pension contributions on the extra element of pay that related to staff’s temporary promotions.”

Meanwhile, service chiefs have agreed to reverse the pensions rule, which means the 207 staff given temporary promotions since 2013 will pay the extra contributions.

The revelation has raised fresh questions about public sector payroll services.

In February furious Hampshire Constabulary staff told the Daily Echo that the cost-cutting H3 system, merging backroom services at the fire brigade, police and council, regularly got salaries wrong.

The H3 system was not involved in the latest mistake however, a spokesman for the fire service said.

But criticising the partnership, Gary Jackson, Hampshire secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “We’re continually disappointed by their performance, because they are not delivering what we were told when all our HR and payment and things went out to them.”

A spokeswoman for H3 said: “Understandably, when making such large and complex changes to support functions across the partner organisations, there have been issues to address in the early stages.

“The issues encountered to date have been relatively small when considered in the overall scale of the project, and swift resolutions have been made.

"Payroll error rates, in relation to approximately 55,000 payroll payments a month for the partnership, are 0.03 per cent, and we have measures in place to ensure that should any errors occur, pay advances can be made to any individuals who may be affected.”