Aren't MPs already paid enough?

"MPs offered £10,000 for coronavirus office costs"

"MPs can claim £10,000 for additional office costs incurred as a result of the coronavirus, Parliament's expenses authority has said.

The money can be used to buy additional equipment such as laptops and printers for staff having to work from home.

This comes on top of the £26,000 MPs can claim to cover office costs."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52231592

Tell that to someone who is 'furloughed' and now has no choice but to live on 80% of their usual salary.

I know from personal experience it doesn't cost that amount to set up a home office, I've done it as a self-employed person. Computers, printers, mobile phones and a provider of internet services do not cost that amount.

What are your comments on this?



It seems that many people have expressed their views of being very much against this:

"135,000 sign petition demanding MPs’ £10,000 work-from-home fund is scrapped"

"More than 130,000 people have signed a petition calling for MPs to be stripped of their £10,000 work-from-home allowance.

MPs have been offered an additional £10,000 each by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) – the body that audits expenses of those in the Commons – to pay for increased costs as they and their staff move to working from home during the Covid-19 lockdown."

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-12/...d-is-scrapped/

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

Our MP says he can meet the increase in expenses through his existing budget so won't need to claim any extra.

This ten grand is for extra expenditure if needed apparently and isn't for the MPs just to trouser as extra pay, although I agree undoubtedly some will try..

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

If MPs are to get extra money for 'staying at home costs' then it should apply to anyone working from home.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

It's not a grant, it's an additional sum that additional expenses can be claimed from.

Working from home for an MP will mean extra costs including employing temps working from their homes. Then there'll be courier service for a variety of things and probably the cost of a phone answering service and they CERTAINLY don't come cheap.

10 grand will soon be used up.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

Why? These things are surely in place anyway.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

I doubt MPs are doing much these days what with everyone staying at home. In fact, I'm not sure they do that much anyway.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

Not for working from home.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

I sometimes worked from home, still do. It saved me money.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

Of course it does. saves on travel, fuel costs and even lunch costs.

Re: Aren't MPs already paid enough?

One would have thought that constituency office staff and assistants would already have been supplied with medium to high-end laptops, etc by the MP they are working for, without the need to go splashing £10k around.