To think that Maria Miller should be treated in the same way as benefit fraudsters?

[zirca]

If you have over claimed on your benefits, I understand you have a short time frame to pay the money back in full, or they either take it out of your future benefits until it is paid, or get a court order to get it back through other means. Now surely, she should be treated in the same way? It is still stealing from the government!

YANBU

Yes, there's a benefits fraud case in the papers at the minute, she's expected to get a custodial sentence. The fraud was 50k.

I was just thinking to myself today, but if you defraud the treasury (in Miller's case by at least 90k) by claiming expenses as an MP, Miller amongst many many other MPs, that makes it ok then?

Yes definitely.

Yep, was thinking this myself. People go to prison for committing fraud for a lesser amount of money.

Yes! It is disgusting hypocrisy!

YADNBU

It absolutely stinks!

Yes. It's double standards as usual for MPs

YANBU

Wonder if hamface Dave would be so supportive to a scummy benefit claimant, don't think so!

YABVU and jumping on a band wagon without finding out the facts.

Read the Parliamentary Committee on Standards Report.

Yes, Maria picked the wrong house as her main residence: she claimed expenses on her London mortgage rather than her Basingstoke rental. Had she claimed correctly, on her Basingstoke rental, she would still have claimed the same money as both amounts were over the cap on allowances of about £22,000pa. She was sloppy and then obstructive, which is what she had to apologise for, but was not defrauding the government. It would have been very harsh to make her repay the allowances she claimed on her London house whilst knowing she was now out of time on her basingstoke home. She did not gain by a sinlge penny through having picked the wrong home - this judgment was finely balanced and she was in line with guidance given at the time so I am not sure why everyone is picking on her.

There is another technical point I am happy to go into about increasing her mortgage limit on her offset (hence the £5k repayment) but so far this post is quite long! Ask and I will explain.

All I can say for now is go read the report. It's not very technical and lays everything out clearly. I reckon the papers are having a pop against MM because she was involved on the Leveson Inquiry. Even Labour MPs have not criticised her over her expenses (just over her attitude which was, I agree, unhelpful and poor - she felt beleaguered as her expenses had already been looked into once before and found to be fine)

But Plumprof, it doesn't matter for people who have claimed the wrong benefits, if they would have been equal to others they should have had, or if they couldn't have coped without the money, or... Especially when it comes to tax credits. It doesn't matter if they were wrongly advised, or the Tax Credit system itself made a mistake, or a whole host of honest, understandable errors. You still have to pay the money back (and then try to claim the correct money, if you can get it).

She may not have meant to, but plenty of people get stung by tax credits etc when they didn't mean to claim wrongly. They don't get any sympathy, nor are they allowed to get away with it after an apology. That's my point.

Is she still in the cabinet?

I was watching the Wright Stuff today and Nadine Dorries said she doubted Miller would survive because it was going on too long. She predicted she'd be out today.

She trod quite a fine line. I couldn't tell whether she liked Miller or not. She stuck to two matters: whether a politician can survive a sustained trashing, and whether we should abolish MPs' expenses and have a debate about a pay rise.

Pretty deep for the Wright Stuff. Thankfully they didn't dwell on it

I used to hate Dorries. I still don't agree with her politics and her views on abortion but I've had to admit she's not that bad an egg.

She stuck up for Ed Miliband over the Daily Mail's piece on his father and also gave a really nice tribute when Bob Crow died and she happened to be reviewing the papers on Sky News that day.

I'm sure she didn't agree with their politics but her support was human and genuine.

I hate people who prove me wrong .

The last one I ended up grudgingly liking was Jim Davidson. He was on there this morning too I think, not being at all offensive that I noticed. That's why I can't quite remember whether he was on it or not.

YANBU

Privatise the expense department. With targets for cuts. Put it out for contract and give it to the cheapest bidder.

No more second homes allowance. Convert some of the property the government holds into apartments. They can live in those when at work. It's a part-time job.

Get rid of their subsidised bar, too.

She continually increased her mortgage (doubling it) so she claimed much more than she actually needed to, then sold the house for a profit of nearly £1 million.

I wonder how many people on this forum have DPs who have to work away from home during the week ? Are they able to claim second home allowances ?

The situation is untenable, but David Cameron is in no position to criticise is he? All as bad as each other, pure unadulterated greed. It is not morally right, and they can't argue it is. Can you tell this winds me up??

If I have this right her constituency house is 45 minutes from Central London (possibly Parliament, can't remember) while her 'crucial' London home is 30 minutes away. How is that better? Lots of people commute further.

There should be a small amount of money available, or halls of residence-style accommodation for those who need it. The general public aren't idiots and we all know the London homes aren't the second homes are they, just a bigger money spinner.

YANBU

Bad move for the Tories not to string her up as a political scapegoat just before the election

Labour can probably get some mileage out of this

I wonder how MPs with more than a one bedroom flat in London can justify it under the bedroom tax.

Actually, I don't.

But plumprof when people are struggling by on low wages and/or facing benefit cuts it sticks in the throat that MPs are claiming up to £22000 just because they can. If the constituency home is in perfectly reasonable commuting difference then she is just claiming because she can.

I'm no financial expert and you sound like you know what you're talking about, but was one of the issues not that she remortgaged the London house more than once, pushing up the amount of interest which she was then able to claim for? Without doing this would she have been below the £22000 limit? Was it a way to claim more?

I have family who have to travel for work, they get a small allowance which pays for a B&B and a cheap meal, and they earn nowhere near an MP wage.

YANBU, she is a thieving scumbag and a 30 second apology is not acceptable. A child pinching a biscuit would be punished more harshly than she has been. MPs have learned absolutely nothing from the expenses scandal at all.

It doesn't matter how much it is. She should have made a sincere apology without having to be prompted for a start.

I wish us members of the general public were given as much leeway as MPs.

Hear hear.

YNBU . Yes she should.

YANBU. I agree with everything in expat's post. Fucking disgrace.

YABU

she is on a salary of £141,000 plus perks and allowances, so she is not hard up

she is in a position of responsibility so should be expected to set an example.

she is an educated person so is perfectly capable of understanding her responsibilities

therefore she deserves less leniency than other benefit fraudsters and other people who stick their snouts into the public purse.

Doest anyone know how much was the Basingstoke rental vs how much was her original London mortgage interest amount?