MPs get £10000 to work from home petition against

[blossompie]

Can anyone link me to the petition against MPs getting £10k to work from home if it's still ongoing? Thanks

I see pictures on LinkedIn every day of people with multiple monitors, laptops with docking stations and very good office chairs, all supplied by employers. Just because some people don’t get things provided doesn’t mean nobody should.

In fact despite being furloughed I am continuing to receive quite a number of calls on my personal mobile phone with regards to work. For many years it's unheard of to have a separate work phone in my sector which is a professional job?

I also own my laptop as well despite being an employee although I would agree that one should be able to claim for that.

Also with regards to a phone, I have been provided a landline by my employer that goes through my personal broadband so international calls are not charged? Or do the public sector not consider these things?!
It's not that they should not be able to claim anything at all it's the automatic £10k allowance I have an issue with.

“ Government” ultimately has control over the funds my employer has to facilitate my work. That’s the point!

It’s not an “automatic” £10k allowance, it’s up to £10k extra in expenses for office equipment and services over a 12 month period. Five members of staff plus an MP is a typical constituency office so that’s up to £138 per worker per month. They’re hardly going to be sitting on golden office thrones using fifty pound notes instead of Post Its.

dyrne none of that changes what i said. People are commenting because 1. Expenses scandal - MPs done have a fantastic track record and 2. Family/friends employed.

You still haven't understood what the money actually is!!

Well this thread is an eye opener. I am working for an NHS Trust from home. I brought home a work laptop I already had, plus my mouse and one of my monitors. I bought myself a keyboard from amazon and was going to buy an office chair for around £60-70 until a colleague kindly offered to bring mine from the office.

We are mostly using MS Teams for meetings and to contact others instead of phone, but for some calls (such as to ED staff) I am having to use my mobile to call them (landline is an old fashioned wired one which doesn't reach to my dining table). I have unlimited minutes so no extra cost there, but I am needing to charge it more often as using it more, not to mention charging the laptop and having the monitor plugged in. It isn't a great deal of money in the grand scheme of things, and I would generally hope the NHS would spend their money on clinical items rather than WFH expenses, but there has been zero mention by my employer of paying for or providing anything extra for me. There are buying laptops for people who don't already have them, but that's it, just the laptop not a mouse or keyboard or monitor or office chair. If an employee is able to pay for equipment and expenses, so that people can work comfortably and ergonomically and aren't out of pocket, then I think they absolutely should

They’re hardly going to be sitting on golden office thrones using fifty pound notes instead of Post Its

Noeuf Nope, you have commented about concerns over the expenses scandal and family/friends etc. And I completely agree - I will be writing to my MP when this is all over asking for a breakdown of what was bought and when and for who. I will also expect that equipment is issued like any other work device - and that the laptop etc will have to be handed in at the end of employment.

Everyone else’s comments can be split into either “it’s unfair that they’re getting given £10K” (which is untrue); or “My employer is shit and doesn’t give me that stuff so no one should have it!” (Which is ridiculous).

For those working on unsecured personal laptops - I sure as hell hope you don’t have any client or customer personal data on there.

Because I don’t trust politicians I fear the up to £10k expenses will be abused by a great many MP’s.

I’m an admin assistant & my employer bought me a laptop & mouse so I can WFH, we already have a spare room with a desk & chair but if we didn’t I’d be sat at the kitchen table or on the sofa doing my work. Not ideal but I’d make do. I would never in a million years have expected my work to supply a desk / chair, likewise I have unlimited Wifi & mobile minutes so happy to use these for work.

Whilst I understand why MP’s & staff should not use personal mobile phones, I would imagine the vast majority of them will already have work mobiles & many will already have work laptops they can use to WFH. Most MP’s staff could tap into their own Wifi for work & I’m guessing they would not be breaking any data protection issues, and likewise I’m sure they could use the kitchen table & chair if they don’t already have a desk, it’s called making the most of a horrible situation & not exploiting it to upgrade what you already have.

Yes it's about give and take in comparison to what the nation are doing when it comes to MPs their salaries are far higher than the average wage, my dh is currently using a piano stool as his wfh desk chair.

Companies would go bust if they had allowances to provide each member of staff further equipment. I fail to see how an MP should come under different rules when it is public funds being used at a time where public funds are being stretched to unprecedented highs.
One of course hopes that each MP will specifically use such an allowance only if absolutely necessary but I think I'm right to not believe this will be the case.
Perhaps each MP can publish details so that the public can at least be aware of what has been spent and on what.

Without public scrutiny abuse is rife in the public sector.
I've worked for private companies who work on projects on behalf of the public sectors. It is absolutely shocking how wasteful they can be and how ancient some of their processes are against current day standards because it would go against what people gain in their jobs vs what's the right thing to do.

This was posted on Tim Loughton MP Facebook page

www.facebook.com/1418302308452871/posts/2659186007697822/?d=n

Yesterday some badly misinformed articles in a couple of national newspapers suggested that MPs had received a hand-out of £10,000 to work from home during the Coronavirus crisis. Clearly it was a disingenuous attempt by journalists to whip up a variation on their pandemic coverage with no regard to the completely misleading impression it would create.
To make matters worse the administrator of a Worthing Facebook page posted a link to these articles with the title ‘MPs give themselves a pay rise of £10,000’ and urged followers to write to me on the ‘pay increase.’ Only after he had done that did he contact me directly for ‘clarification.’ Not surprisingly many people have written to me, as if I did not have enough emails to deal with at the moment on real issues that my constituents are dealing with! This is my (toned down) response to this gentleman which I hope makes the situation clear.

Dear Mr xxx – you have no idea how angry this makes me. Before you even wrote to me to ‘clarify’ you apparently posted on social media that MPs had given themselves ‘a pay rise of £10,000.’ Even the story in The Times which is full of errors does not make this claim. So why have you chosen to make trouble in this way?
As a result, I am now ploughing through a whole load of emails from angry constituents having seen your completely disingenuous comments.
To add insult to injury you claim that this ‘payment’ is so we can work from the safety of (our) home.’ For most of the last couple of weeks the ‘safety of my own home’ has amounted to lugging provisions from Sainsbury’s to Worthing Hospital and then standing in a freezing car park each evening to provide much needed foodstuffs to exhausted nurses coming off shift. It has been a privilege to do it.
Today the ‘safety of my own home’ has meant being out since 7.30 delivering over 350 Easter eggs across the constituency to nurses, midwives, ambulance crew, GPs, refuse collectors etc. In between I have been delivering PPE to care homes and charities and supplies to vulnerable constituents. In between all that I have held 4 conference calls and I have just returned home to start on only 300 emails – the lowest number this week. My staff are all working from home and all of us will again be working through the weekend dealing with queries from constituents who cannot get any essential supplies; constituents stranded abroad; employers and employees needing advice on the various business support packages and a whole lot in-between and now thanks to you I will be up to late dealing with this rubbish! I hope you are pleased with yourself.
The facts are, not that you are interested in them or you would have had the courtesy to check with me first:
IPSA in its wisdom decided unilaterally to make an additional £10,000 available to MPs over the next financial year to cover any possible increase in costs because of the Corona epidemic. That money can be primarily used for additional computer and other tech equipment/secure Wi-Fi etc to enable staff to work from home as we cannot work from Parliament. In some cases, MPs may also need to employ additional staff as I have heard cases of some colleagues now being deluged with over 1000 emails a day. Those costs will in most cases be covered by direct charge to the credit cards issued to MPs for office running costs and travel.
• Not a penny of it will go to the MP himself or herself
• MPs were not consulted about this increase in the allowance and have found it almost impossible to discuss it with IPSA as they were the first to close their office, send all the staff home and now do not answer their phones.
• IPSA is entirely independent of MPs and have determined everything about Parliamentary costs, salary, pensions etc since 2010. We have no power to overrule them. That is apparently what the public wanted after the ‘expenses’ scandal’ even though the cost of running IPSA is considerably higher than the previous system.
• It is highly unlikely that I will need to access this £10,000 for my office as I am nowhere near spending this year’s allowance in full, as usual. I already have an office set up at home so that I can continue to work on constituency correspondence and other parliamentary work over weekends when not at Westminster. My office staff volunteered to drive into Parliament so they could transport their desktop computers and other essential kit back home during the lockdown period. I have offered to pay their petrol ‘expenses’ personally.
• The comparison with pay for frontline staff is particularly disingenuous and understandably only serves to enrage people more than even this ill-informed story. As it happens I have been on the record supporting a pay increase for NHS staff.
Now please tell me on what planet you justify this as a ‘pay rise.’
If you cannot I would request that you revisit your posts on social media, take down the lies and set out the facts. I am sure you will want to offer a public apology too.

Not impressed

Tim Loughton
Member of Parliament for East Worthing & Shoreham

You don't need to write to your MP about this - you can just look at their expenses online

Ha ok I never believed they received extra of £10k however I believe this allowance is far too wide open for abuse.

Thanks @myrtleWilson I did not know this and will do this over the coming weeks. If no one checks up in these things of course public funds could be used for unnecessary reasons. Not all MPs are in touch with real life necessities.

DonegalGhirl it’s not “exploiting” anything; it’s called “your employer has a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment”. My workplace (with many Others) are simply providing us with DSE equipment to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal issues further down the line.

My employer hasn’t “offered me” a lot of stuff, however I will be ordering a keyboard, mouse and Laptop riser through our occupational health portal, as is my right to do so.

Companies would go bust if they had allowances to provide each member of staff further equipment.

So you are against anyone making any arrangements to facilitate WFH?

Also with regards to a phone, I have been provided a landline by my employer

Oh OK, just other people then.

it's the automatic £10k allowance I have an issue with.

Soooo, you think there should be no cap on the WFH set up costs for MP's offices.

I would imagine the vast majority of them will already have work mobiles

Well, then they won't have to buy them.

*Perhaps each MP can publish details so that the public can at least be aware of what has been spent and on what."

Yes, it's amazing no-one has thought of this before. It's good to see you've thoroughly researched this topic.

Silly, ill-informed hypocrisy like this is unhelpful at the best of times, let alone now. Take 5 minutes to exercise some critical thinking before being certain that something you read in the Sun is a travesty.

@blossompie there is a separate body set up to manage MP pay and expenses - they do check all the claims and refuse to pay if necessary.

I do think reading "Why we get the wrong politicians" and "Secret Barrister- Stories of the law and how it is broken" should be compulsory reading at school - they provide an insight into how our parliament and our judiciary actually work (or fail to work) in practice and cut through the tabloid sensationalism.

Ok dyrne I'm being generous in assuming others are basing their concerns on mine.

That Tim Loughton letter is annoying - lots of look at how wonderful I am, rather than thank you for allowing me to set the record straight, please update your media posts. Says he has had loads of extra emails then says it's the lowest that week.

@unlimiteddilutingjuice - while I have absolutely no issue with MPs staff needing more resources, especially to keep up with the increased casework, my understanding is that an MP could already access expenses?

Interesting @myrtleWilson so do the MPs get paid and it is retrospectively denied or is it upfront non payment and refusal of funds if a particular thing is not agreed upon.
£10k is a hefty allowance even for a team. And I'd be most interested to see how many 'team' members are part of the same household as well.
Also again having worked with the public sector abuse doesn't mean it's not with the 'rules' it's the 'rules' that's the issue.

That Tim Loughton letter is annoying - lots of look at how wonderful I am, rather than thank you for allowing me to set the record straight, please update your media posts.

He's been accused of taking a 10k pay rise when he's running around trying to help people at a very difficult time for everyone.

I think he can be forgiven a bit of hyperbole and wanting to set the record straight. I would not be thanking someone for writing lies either.

Says he has had loads of extra emails then says it's the lowest that week.

He said that day's 300 emails were the lowest of the week to make the point about how many extra he's been getting.

Not personally. I think if you can't deal professionally with ill informed people then you aren't fit to represent them.

His original response was apparently ruder he brags at the end. So what if he's chosen to help nurses - good for him but completely irrelevant and smacks of misdirection.

I think if you can't deal professionally with ill informed people then you aren't fit to represent them.

I wouldn't send a rant myself (that's what MN is for :-), but I don't think he was rude, I think he was annoyed for good reason.

I think we will get a better class of politicians if we don't jump on them every time they act like human beings.

I also think it's very important that public discourse is informed. The epidemic of bile and misinformation is harming politics.

I was happy to sign this petition. If you search the change.org site for Lucy Pearson you will find it.
As some reports have pointed out - there were other potential means to meet this demand such as an equipment loan. Given that so many essential services are relying on charities to provide equipment perhaps MPs could have been encouraged to ask their constituency parties/supporters for funds/loans of equipment that could be re-distributed locally post-crisis.

TBF a lot of current MPs haven't been in post long and their office staff will probably be new too so they may not be set up for wfh.

OTOH in my job we're all expected to use our own personal equipment bc office has no laptops, so it feels annoying.