Forum Topic

MP’s £10000 work from home fund

I hadn’t heard about this until I saw this item:-https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-12/130-000-sign-petition-demanding-mps-10-000-work-from-home-fund-is-scrapped/It does sound like a lot of money for extra expenses for working from home.

Michael David Rowe ● 2397d11 Comments

It's not for the MPs. It's there, if needed, for their staff who are working from home for the first time and may not have the right equipment to do so.

Susan Kelly ● 2397d

In most normal large organisations with thousands of employees, the employer would provide the necessary kit if any of them had to work at home. The employee wouldn't have to buy it themselves or pay their own office staff, even if they can claim it back. But typically, MPs have to be different. 'We're free agents, we're employed by no one, we're part of a centuries old tradition' etc. So most of their working and living and remuneration arrangements are totally archaic, and I suspect a lot of them like it that way!

Peter Evans ● 2397d

Do their 'employees' still consist largely of wives and close relatives or did they do away with that particular feature of the gravy train?

Colin Jordan ● 2397d

I think the rules about employing family members were changed in 2017, but only to apply to 'newly elected' and not established MPs. This means the changes probably first took effect last December.  Under the new regulations, I suppose MPs can still employ their mistress or boy friend, if not their husband or wife!  In most large organisations, any arrangements like this would be out of the question, and if you needed an office assistant, you'd be provided with one from a suitably qualified central pool. But MPs have to be different and still seem to have no proper HR or line management structures, with the serious problems that can sometimes create.

Peter Evans ● 2396d

Many MP's have abused their expenses in the past and some may still do so. However I would be perturbed if MP's became employees of the state instead of being self-employed. Those abusing their expenses should be exposed and voted out at the next election if they continue to stand.

Christopher Hugh Dakers ● 2396d

MP’s have been offered an extra £10,000 to cover any extra office expenses, it was announced just before Matt Hancock said “Now is not the time to talk about nurses pay”I read one MP trying to defend himself by saying that he had to buy all his staff new computers because they couldn’t be expected to use their own, but it was ok he wouldn’t be claiming any of the £10,000, he would pay for them out of the £26,000 a year he can already claim from.

Colin Potter ● 2396d

Can you explain exactly what the problem is? MPs are mostly working flat out now dealing with an unprecedented amount of casework from their constituents. Isn't it in all our interests that they have the support and the resources they need to do this? We don't want to go back to the days when MPs were expected to be self-funding otherwise we will end up with a parliament full of people like Jacob Rees-Mogg.We will have to have a conversation about nurses' pay at some point but it will be a very difficult one. Most people in the private sector have seen their income decline substantially, if not disappear altogether and ultimately it is the tax paid by these people that supports the NHS. The public sector is not furloughing staff or cutting headcount at the moment but if we want to ensure that frontline NHS staff get paid what they deserve we will have to find the money from somewhere. Cuts elsewhere in the public sector are likely to be the only option.

Francis Rowe ● 2395d

IPSA have handled this pretty badly.  It's meant to cover MP's additional expenses to 1 March 2021.  It's an additional nudget to be drawn against rather than a grant and receipts will have to be supplied. The text of the letter is here:https://theipsa-web-staging.azurewebsites.net/media/185648/bulletin-19-march-2020.pdf

David McLoughlin ● 2395d

So what chance our MPs follow New Zealand’s decision to reduce all MPs salaries by 20%? It would save a very small amount of money in reality but the optics would be good.

Stewart Jones ● 2394d

In NZ it's Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition who get Ministerial salaries on top of their pay as MPs who've taken the pay cut.  Not all MPs. I think the initiative would have to come from the Government, not the Opposition otherwise it would be seen as point-scoring.  The UK list of ministerial salaries is here:https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m06.pdf

David McLoughlin ● 2394d

A ceiling of £100,000 should be placed on all salaries in the public sector and state run institutions. Not sure why MPs should be singled out as there are thousands of other people paid out of the public purse who get far more than them. There can be no justification for these high salaries now given the collapse in the tax base.

Francis Rowe ● 2393d