GORDON Brown has promised to study Ministry of Defence bonus payments after it was revealed the department’s civil servants had pocketed almost £50m this year.

There was enormous anger among troops’ fami-lies yesterday after the disclosure that bonuses for bureaucrats had reached £287,809,049 since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

They were described as an insult to soldiers fighting – and losing their lives on the frontline in Afghanistan amid claims over equipment shortages.

But union leaders and ministers defended the bill, saying many recipients were not highly paid.

The Prime Minister said: “If there are any questions asked over the bonuses, I will examine them.”

But he added: “I’ve got to say that some of the people who have received help have been working out in the field, and people that have been supporting people out there.

“We want to send a message of support to our armed forces.”

Official MoD figures showed a total of £47,283,853 had been paid out in bonus-es to civil servants this year between April and August.

The figure was down on the £52,984,656 paid out in 2008/09 but higher than the previous year’s £46,103,238 and almost double the bonuses totalling £24,866,213 paid out in 2003/04.

Hazel Hunt, whose son Private Richard Hunt died in August, said it was “obscene” that troops were being short-changed.