To think MPs shouldn’t get this extra money

[grapesofraf]

www.politicshome.com/news/article/mps-given-10000-extra-to-help-them-work-from-home-during-coronavirus-outbreak

We’re all having to face hardships but typically MPs putting their needs ahead of nurses and other front line workers. They already get a big allowance for their office.

There ya go

They aren’t getting it. It’s for their staff to buy equipment to work at home

If people insist that MPs must pay for things or of their own pockets then only the rich will stand parliament.

Most of us have to buy things out of our own pockets, or at least partly. Who else gets such a generous amount for expenses. . I mean for most of us, our wages/salary is expected to cover our meals, travel etc.

In most roles you're required to maintain two households and travel cross-country every week at your own expense, why should MPs be different?

*not required

YANBU. It’s despicable

ZarkingBell
It's money for MPs and staff to work from home - so for laptops, phone bills and internet connections. I imagine most MPs already have home offices but the staff probably won't.

So when will they be doing this for teachers and others that have had to buy home office equipment?

Oh thats right, they won't because they are just pigs in a trough,

grapesofraf the majority of workers are not expected to pay the wages of other members of staff from their own pocket.

Or for their colleagues furniture, computers or equipment.

They are also providing a vital public service.

As pp have said this is an extension to their office budget not a free 10k.

However, if you and the people you know are being forced by managers to pay wages of other staff members from your own wages I suggest you join a union or get a solicitor.

My dd just got a laptop from her employers, cost less than £500, no extra for heating or anything else. It’s a typical over the top excessive amount. I’d like to see how it’s broken down.

soapboxqueen So they’re still gettin* their normal office budget, even though they aren’t there?

they've not just had the money transferred into their bank accounts. As normal with any expenses, there are rules and regs around what the money can be spent on and they have to submit receipts. Honestly, having worked with MPs across a number of political parties over the years, the work that the majority of them and their staff do is always crucial but even more so at the moment. Constituents should be able to go to them for all sorts of advice and, with all their local offices closed, they need to be able to provide all those services remotely. Local MPs can be extremely valuable at times like this to point the public to benefits, local food banks and services which exist to help people.

Well one MP - Justin Madders - has enquired if he can use the leftovers towards helping his constituency.

And they already had the budget for their staff?

FrippEnos employers should pay the costs their staff incur as a result of doing their job. I've worked in the public sector, for small companies, in the third sector and freelance. I've always been reimbursed for things like the cost of travelling to a different place for work, for paying for postage out of my own pocket and for essential office supplies when I work from home. My last two public sector roles provided me with a laptop for working from home/away from the office as my job required it.

It's already been pointed out that this is a contingency fund for emergency use. It is not money into MPs' pockets.

Please stop the faux outrage. If your employer is making you pay out of your pocket go to them. I think it's pretty tough to be a young worker forced to work from your bed as you have nowhere else to go. It's a good thing when employers step up to the plate surely?

I’m working from home. My employer has provided me with a laptop and mobile phone for the purpose. I’m not paying a Fucking penny for the privilege of being able to work for my employer, and don’t expect anyone else to either.

It’s terrible if teachers are having to buy their own laptops etc to continue working; but the answer to that is your unions need to step the fuck up and do something to fight it; not to drag everyone down to your shit working conditions.

ZarkingBell

Please stop the faux outrage

ODFOD.

You seem to have a very short memory of how MPs have abused the expenses system in the past.

I work for an MP.

I happen to usually use a laptop, so I didn’t need to get one. The London staff are not allowed to go into work. They are not allowed to take their desktop computers home (security)
They have to work from home on secure computers- we have access to VERY sensitive info. Many staff/MPs don’t have printers at home.
The money is NOT GIVEN to MPs. It’s a rise in the budget- many MPs won’t use it. Every single penny will have to be accounted for. With receipts. If used, the majority will be boight & paid by the MP and then paid back IF they can prove it was for parliamentary purposes.
Every single item will then be published online for you to see- just like every other expense of MPs.

Should our caseworker have to pay for the hundreds of overseas calls she has had to make from home to help stranded constituents? Lots of calls to mobiles abroad, to embassies- that will get claimed in expenses. She isn’t on a massive salary.

Why are posters still being outraged about this when it’s been explained what it’s for? Can you not read? They see the it’s Tory so must be bad. Utterly pathetic

We hear time and time again about a blasé attitude by some MPs of expenses which is effectively JO Public’s money !funds whether it’s for stables not paying parliamentary bar bills and endless list, MPs are much better paid as MPs & from their 2nd and 3rd jobs .
In a time when nurses social workers teachers & many amazing people are working from home at their OWN UNDERPAID COST this 10k is an absolute insult.

My sisters friend earns less than £30k as a junior staffer for an MP. She’s currently trying to help run his office from a beanbag in her bedroom as she lives in a house share with 4 other grads in London. My understanding is that this is allowing her to get a desk for her room (no living room, of course, landlord wouldn’t want to miss out on an extra tenant’s £££). I don’t think this has been publicised well.

OP, if you can't be bothered to read and comprehend the responses then why start the thread?

You clearly don't want to change your opinion or try to understand what the money is for. YABU.

But Pumpkinpie1 surely it’s obvious that MPs and their staff need extra considerations that the bog standard work from home person won’t?

Do you really want people working for the Secretary of State for Defence working at home on a bog standard unsecured internet connection from Plusnet? Or the Home Secretary? Setting up the right security costs money, it’s not a case of giving away MacBooks. Perhaps some may even need a security detail swinging by their house to check in. Again, this costs money.

And as PP said, do you really think it’s fair that staff on maybe £20K a year rack up £££ in phone calls to constituents out of their own pocket?

I’ll say again - get outraged all you like about the shit working conditions of nurses and teachers; but taking away decent working conditions from others (the vast majority of which won’t be the MPs themselves but their significantly less paid staff) won’t do anything to help; it just leaves more people in the shit.

1. It's not money in anyone's pocket, it's an extra allowance which can be claimed for additional expenses if necessary. Not all of them will use it, and most won't use all of it.
2. MP's don't decide their own allowances. It's awarded by an independent body.
3. They aren't the only ones working from home/needing to run offices remotely: other companies should ALSO be ensuring that their employees have what they need to do their jobs effectively at home.

YAB SO VU. It isn’t for MP’s, it’s for their offices - they’re not just getting paid an extra £10k in their bank accounts to spend on themselves.
As someone who used to work for an MP I’m disgusted by the amount of people slagging this off. Why on earth should staff have to be put at risk when they can work from home if laptops etc can be purchased to make this happen.

If they don’t work from home then people who desperately need help, advice and support won’t get that and I imagine you’d have a problem that MP’s offices were not supporting people then.

Plenty of organisations are getting extra resources, including the NHS, so that staff who can work from home do. MP’s constituency offices and the staff running them play a really important role year round in supporting people, often the most vulnerable, and the amount of queries and casework they’re getting now is massively increased because of coronavirus.

Just as an aside point, anyone told to work from home can claim £6 a week presumably through their tax return at the end of the year.

It’s on martins money tips email. I really recommend signing up to their monthly offering, it’s brilliant.

I didn’t read the section btw as I won’t be claiming personally.