MP's 10k expenses increase.

[bazza white]

Seems the press headlining it as MP's getting an extra 10k salary for working from home and social media going a bit mad over the amount although its for expenses only. Many MP's trying to defend their position and reject claiming the expense.

Is 10k for a backbenchers office staff expenses a bit ott. A front bencher I'm guessing will have more staff. Many will be working from laptops anyway which possibly the biggest expense.

Edited by bazza white on Thursday 9th April 23:22

[abzmike]

Our local MP, whom I am not a fan of to be fair, has said this is an amount of expenses that can be claimed to provide for staff particularly in constituent offices, to work from home. I would expect most folk would have a computer at home to use, and maybe even access to a phone of their own, but to allow additional expenses does not sound so unreasonable. Doesn’t look good though.

[gazza285]

They are getting zero extra salary.

[Shelsleyf2]

I would expect the reduction in travel expenses , to more than offset the additional office expenses. Is there a London accommodation allowance expenses?

[bazza white]

gazza285 said:

They are getting zero extra salary.

As stated but the press are making out its extra cash. People on social media are having a meltdown.

[anonymous-user]

I think the bigger worry is the fact that they’ve relaxed the rules on what evidence you need to produce when submitting a claim until March 2021. Give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile.

[Hoofy]

Shelsleyf2 said:

I would expect the reduction in travel expenses , to more than offset the additional office expenses. Is there a London accommodation allowance expenses?

Thought the same.

[Unbusy]

Those floating duck houses don't fix themselves

[anonymous-user]

I bet it is easier to apply for than a cbils loan

[hutchst]

abzmike said:

Our local MP, whom I am not a fan of to be fair, has said this is an amount of expenses that can be claimed to provide for staff particularly in constituent offices, to work from home. I would expect most folk would have a computer at home to use, and maybe even access to a phone of their own, but to allow additional expenses does not sound so unreasonable. Doesn’t look good though.

I'm not sure that it's OK to conduct parliamentary or government business on your home family computer, in between your teenage kids playing Doom Car Theiving XII and your husband watching Pornhub, all shared with your neighbour because he's signed into your WiFi because he's reached his cap.

The absulute minimum should be dedicated laptops and some form of VPN tunelling.

[petemurphy]

you would have thought mps would be issued with laptops anyway and their offices would already be equipped?

idiot lefties on facebook having a field day saying nurses dont get pay rise why should they "get" 10k but then it doesnt exactly look good.

lefties fail to mention labour mps get it too

[valiant]

It’s mainly for their staff who’ll need equipment to work from home effectively that they didn’t previously have.

It’s up to £10k anyway rather than gifting every MP £10k no questions asked.

[hutchst]

petemurphy said:

you would have thought mps would be issued with laptops anyway and their offices would already be equipped?

idiot lefties on facebook having a field day saying nurses dont get pay rise why should they "get" 10k but then it doesnt exactly look good.

lefties fail to mention labour mps get it too

It's not for MPs, and it's not for their offices. But apart from that, you're right.

[Murph7355]

There aren't too many things that boil my piss, but MPs expenses are one of them. (The media are another - they did some decent work on exposing this scandal a few years ago, and then let it go before any meaningful change was made. Pointless).

This 10k allowance is on top of 26k for setting up an office. And no end of other expenses to cover overlapping items.

I have some sympathy with the view that MPs don't get paid enough when what they do is fully considered. But the way to address that is not to use expenses to top this up. Have an honest discussion about it and get the salary bumped up if required (I have equal sympathy with the view that doubling what they get paid won't necessarily improve the quality of the candidates!).

But on expenses, they should be leading by example and following the exact same rules as everybody else. And they quite clearly are not. The nature of what they do is no different to what employees in many industries have to do. They are not special cases ripe for exemption. If they feel their circumstances demand different rules, then change the rules for *everyone*.

I would:

- bin the second home nonsense. If Parliament must be rooted in London (personally I'd move it) then convert a govt building to minimal (bedsit style) serviced apartments to cater for any MPs who are more than a 1hr commute away from Parliament.

- arrange Parliamentary business so that it happens in a contiguous block. Travel can then be claimed (std class) to/from. MPs *must* turn up

- video conferencing capability to be opened up for those that cannot attend in person. Either way, they ALL attend.

- structure staffing so that everyone at a particular level gets the same "headcount" (as a max - doesn't have to be used). Employ them through a single body that administers pay and rations. I have no issue with an MP employing his wife or son, daughter, Great Aunt. They can choose who they employ. But they do not choose how many they employ and they do not choose the terms. They are set for them

- all other expenses follow the exact same rules that HMRC set for everybody else

(- and on this one specifically...if people *really* don't have their own device, then one gets supplied from a central govt pool for use)


As someone else noted, the more worrying thing about this is that the rules are being eased up for a period. They have demonstrated quite clearly that they cannot be trusted on expenses. And the most worrying thing is their continued lack of self awareness about how things like this are perceived.

hutchst said:

I'm not sure that it's OK to conduct parliamentary or government business on your home family computer, in between your teenage kids playing Doom Car Theiving XII and your husband watching Pornhub, all shared with your neighbour because he's signed into your WiFi because he's reached his cap.

The absulute minimum should be dedicated laptops and some form of VPN tunelling.

Totally unnecessary in this day and age. Using your own device to do all sorts of things is perfectly acceptable in plenty of industries when they have proper infrastructure set up. And if government don't, they damn well should. But as noted above, if people really don't have their own facilities already (in this day and age!) then they can have the stty asset stickered to the max central pool 2kg laptop provided for them.

[Electro1980]

I think one of the biggest frustrations is the fact that lots of other people are having to suddenly work from home with zero extra support. I know I had to fight with my company to get a couple of laptops for people who did not have a PC, and they are refusing to pay for extra utilities.

[Zirconia]

I would have thought that they already have secure lap tops for official business? Wonder how many cartridges and paper has fund its way home. I would like to see this way open and scrutinised.

People stacking shelves still on the same wage I expect (I hope they get a bonus), others are still out there working, refuse collections etc. a lot of people seem to be dropping the Sunaks net, why could they not just say valid extra claims can be made and not set a target.

Be interesting to see what my new MP does.

[55palfers]

Unbusy said:

Those floating duck houses don't fix themselves

It looks like our esteemed public servant has gone to the great duck-house in the sky.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52...

[Hoofy]

valiant said:

It’s mainly for their staff who’ll need equipment to work from home effectively that they didn’t previously have.

It’s up to £10k anyway rather than gifting every MP £10k no questions asked.

I can see the odd MP or 50 thinking, "I fancy a top of the range Macbook Pro and 50" monitor" to blow the £10k budget since they don't have to worry about the details.

[Alucidnation]

Murph7355 said:

Totally unnecessary in this day and age. Using your own device to do all sorts of things is perfectly acceptable in plenty of industries when they have proper infrastructure set up. And if government don't, they damn well should. But as noted above, if people really don't have their own facilities already (in this day and age!) then they can have the stty asset stickered to the max central pool 2kg laptop provided for them.

I know a few people who work from home most of the time in financial services, and they are forbidden from using their own computers and have laptops supplied to them.

[98elise]

Hoofy said:

valiant said:

It’s mainly for their staff who’ll need equipment to work from home effectively that they didn’t previously have.

It’s up to £10k anyway rather than gifting every MP £10k no questions asked.

I can see the odd MP or 50 thinking, "I fancy a top of the range Macbook Pro and 50" monitor" to blow the £10k budget since they don't have to worry about the details.

That's not how it works. I used to work at HoP. They order it in house from very limited selection of IT kit. At the time they were toying with the idea of BYOD but it didn't get off the ground.