AIBU to think this £10,000 for each MP is just plain wrong

[LuluJakey1]

MPs are each entitled to a £10,000 additional payment because they are working from home.

AIBU to think that in these times of financial distress and worry for millions, this is a totally unnecessary payment and should immediately be stopped?

Jeremy Corbyn has apparently refused the money and asked that his be donated to the NHS.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/mps-given-an-extra-10000-to-work-from-home/09/04/

Info above.

Totally wrong, totally predictable.

The poor suffer always.

10k to equip their staff to work from home.
Most businesses have had to get extra equipment to enable their staff to work from home if they usually have an office based job.

I think in the circumstances it would be a lovely gesture to donate it.

How about £10,000 paid to all the keyworkers for risking their own health so that they can help others. I think it's ludicrous that someone sat in the safety of their own home is topped with extra cash 😤

By keyworkers I don't mean just the emergency services I'm talking about people in the supermarkets,teachers who are still working,postal staff etc

My understanding isn't that they are given the money. It is that they can claim for IT equipment for themselves and their staff. Still annoying for public servants who aren't MPs as we have to use our own personal kit if we don't have a work laptop. Would be great if we all got what we needed provided, but I'd start with PPE for medics and then work up to laptops for the rest of us, not the other way round.

Working from home is usually considered to be a perk in itself. I work from home on minimum wage, and am expected to buy my own office equipment and pay my own running costs. They are entitled fuckers as ever.

It would be nice if all key workers having to try to work from home had access to the same grants (nhs worker who can do some of job from home)

@starrynight19 Given they all have a constituency office already and admin staff I find it astonishing. My friend's partner is our local MP's Constituency Secretary. She works 3 days in the constituency office - which is fully equipped. She has an ipad and a lap-top as has the research assistant.
In addition local councils are giving them £10,000 each for the costs of their constituency offices during closure. Madness.
Statutory Sick Pay is now £95.85 a week. MPs are being handed £20,000 in total at a time SSP increased by a couple of quid. MPs already get £26,000 to run their office. Add the £20,000 to that and it is £46,000, plus expenses, plus their salaries. SSP £95.85 a week. It is shocking! Nurses can't have a pay rise. NHS struggling.
I am so angry.

They’re not being handed £10k cash. It’s an increase to the budget they can claim from for specific expenses mostly for their staff. They can’t just donate it to wherever they fancy either.

YABU to share a false story from the 'London Economic' which is a click bait bollocks site. Please read this explanation from Reuters, which is a highly respected international news agency. The payment is not going to the MPs' pockets, but to pay for equipment for their staff, who don't usually work from home. And it's an independent body, not MPs themselves, who awarded this.
here

Also, there are 650 MPs and 1.5 million people work for the NHS, so by my calculation, if they didn't take this money and donated it to NHS staff, each member of staff would get £4 pounds 33 pence.

It is £10,000 which they do not need but can each claim. They are mollycoddled in comparison to the low-paid and NHS staff.
Many people are working from home and expected to make sure they can do so. Many children have no ICT or internet access to do schoolwork. Many teachers are expected to buy their own lap-tops and printers, as will people in other jobs. People off sick are expected to exist on £95 a week. Many people are on minimum wage and have been furloughed. Why don't they have access to these grants? I know why they don't- we couldn't afford it. But I would rather that money went to NHS/ People on SSP than to MPS.
It is in many sections of the Press
www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/mps-handed-an-additional-10000-each-to-help-them-work-from-home-during-lockdown/

Many teachers are expected to buy their own lap-tops and printers

I'm a teacher. This isn't true at all. I don't know one single teacher, regardless of school or LA, that has done this.

Both DH’s workplace and mine have said all employees must work from home. If you don’t have your own equipment, then you can’t work from home so won’t be paid. The responsibility (and cost) of having the right equipment to produce work, complete online tasks, zoom meetings etc. has fallen on us. I work in the public sector, DH private. Thankfully we already had all the facilities in place but colleagues have been shelling out for all sorts or tech.

It's the amount they are allowed to expense for staff members' costs of working from home. It's not a 10k payment. YAB completely U to focus on this instead of the many reasons you could criticise our MPs / government.

The Times www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-mps-given-extra-10-000-each-for-home-working-expenses-w0h5sx99l
Yahoo News uk.news.yahoo.com/mps-eligible-10-000-grant-080846177.html This is about the additional £10,000 each from local authorities. £20,000 total.

It’s for IT equipment for their office staff and they have to submit receipts to show how it’s been spent. Find something worthwhile to wet your knickers about.

Also from what I've read, quite a few MP's have already came forward to say that their staff already have laptops etc. so they won't be claiming anything at all. Some might only have desktop computers so need to buy laptops or have the computers couriered to staff. I'd be surprised if any MP actually spends the 10k but I can't get too worked up about this to be honest.

YABVU. It’s for their staff.

@HollyGoLoudly1 I was a teacher, have many friends who are teachers and DH is a Head. I don't know of a single teacher whose ICT equipment they use at home is provided by school. They buy their own pc/lap-top/ipad/ printer and whatever else they use.

Does anybody actually believe that MP's assistants don't already have phones and laptops of their own?

Of course they bloody do.

And even if they didn't, it wouldn't cost a year's bloody salary to buy a couple from the nearest Argos.

I wonder if they voted to give themselves this money?

You are all very naive if you think it's for their staff. Their staff are already paid. Their staff already have ICT equipment in the constituency office.
It is disgraceful and yet another example of the political system having no idea how badly off or put upon by employers many people in this country are.