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.

could you have put the neccessary security systems in place at zero cost?

No, we paid for what was necessary.

In an ideal world we would have had the funds to give everyone laptops, but given the rate at which our contracts are being cancelled, that wasn’t an option.

We’ve laid off about a quarter of our staff.

Is anyone who fell for the shit Meeja lie going to come back and say sorry?

Many people seem to have taken this, and a numberof other equally stupid Meeja lies, at face value and been angered or scared by them.

At some point we have to acknowledge that the press is deliberately scaremongering and hold them to account. Maybe start by shouting back "We see you, liar!"

No, we paid for what was necessary

Exactly

It's unfortunate you have had to lay off staff, but not really sure it's relevant. As a business, people sign up and consent to their data being held, overheads should take into account the need to adhere to GDPR etc. The government holds both personal data for everyone and matters of national security. It is in tax payers direct interest that ICT systems have the correct security in place, and as they don't turn a profit it has to come from the government pot. I'm not sure what's unreasonable about that to be honest.

This story is driving me crazy and shows how little people actually understand how politics works in the UK.

As other people who work for MPs have pointed out this is not a £10k gift to an MP.

Many MP constitutioncy staff are not that well paid and can be a range of ages. The idea that you can do your job well on a tablet is utterly laughable and there is a huge amount of phones calls to make.

Casework is more vital now than ever and might involve the staff member having to be on the phone to the DWP, then call the constituant. Then back on the phone to the DWP etc etc.

I don't have a printer at home and thinking about all the people I know who have worked in MPs offices not many will have laptops especially ones they can use themselves all day as some still live at home so might have a shared PC as they do their day to say internet use on a phone or tablet.

This utter none story has actually made me quite mad.

In fairness I don’t think anyone who deals with personal data should be using their personal laptops.

I would have thought that one of the largest expenses for an MP is travel for them and their team from Westminster to their constituency, presumably this will be massively cutback so I don’t understand how they need the £10,000 on top of whatever budget they have, surely it’s just a case of you can now spend money on laptops etc...rather than extra money which is probably the case rather than mp expense hysteria.

Obviously they’ll be one or two who will upgrade their duck houses to two storey because they can get away with it.

Most people already have Wi-Fi. The weather's warm, so shouldn't need heating, minimal leccy. They'll likely be saving on lunches and fares. All they need to work from home is a designated laptop and mobile phone, not £10000. That money needs to go on PPE and testing for NHS staff and carers.

No, we paid for what was necessary

Exactly

But it’s interesting, what you may or may not deem ‘necessary’ depending on what’s actually available to you.

We probably had to lay off two extra staff members to afford to put the necessary security measures in place. We had to do this, otherwise we’d be in breech of our contracts.

If we’d decided laptops were ‘necessary’ then that would have been more staff gone. There were ways round this, so we took them.

So the idea of a pot suddenly being available, with no consequences (in terms of jobs) in a time when the economy is totally disintegrating is very alien to me.

Especially when there’s so much need for that money elsewhere.

The additional funds have been allocated to help MPs and their staff pay for laptops and other computer equipment, as well as electricity, heating and phone bills

So I’ve just seen this.

You can make the argument for pap-tops.

But lighting and heating? That’s a total piss take, sorry. No one else is getting that for wfh in the current circs.

@louhotel MPs are not allowed to move money between budgets- so yes- travel will go down massively. But they can’t use that pot for office expenditure.
As as I keep saying- most MPs will not need this extra budget.

And the chances of MPs claiming that are low, - apart from anything else, they can claim a small percentage and have to give evidence of the extra spend.
It would be maybe £1/2 a month. Why bother?

Everyone can claim tax deducatae expense for working from home for heating & electrucity,

@LaurieMarlow there were mass redundancies in the public sector a few years back, one of the benefits now is that you are likely to have a secure job, because posts need to remain filled to deliver essential support and services and there isn't as much 'excess fat'. For a lot of professionals pay is higher in the private sector, but part of the trade off is being more likely to have a job in circumstances like this; so yes it may be alien, but consider working for the public sector if you want?

I dont know any other industry where extra money is available to help set up wfh. Most are making cutbacks with some using their own equipment

My company bought several hundred laptops before lockdown to enable working from home. Stocks were falling every single day because other companies were doing the same. Much of this equipment is manufactured in Asia where manufacturing has been hit. Many of our staff either didn’t have suitable equipment (eg tablets only) or didn’t have enough in the household (eg one per family as in my case) to work from home with no extra support. There is some limited funding available for people who have to buy additional equipment. My husbands company are covering the cost of a new monitor. If people are already set up for working from home for an extended period, that’s all well and great but it shouldn’t be a surprise that some people need some extra kit and it is reasonable for the employer to cover some of those costs where appropriate. It’s not reasonable to say that the individuals working in an MPs office should bear all costs if they can’t afford to.

@lauriemarlow you can claim tax rebate towards running costs to wfh, either that or your employer pays it.

I dont know any other industry where extra money is available to help set up wfh. Most are making cutbacks with some using their own equipment

We mostly all had laptops as standard, but we've certainly had extra screens, docking stations, peripherals etc made available so we can get as close to a proper office set up as possible.

you can claim tax rebate towards running costs to wfh, either that or your employer pays it

Is what’s being offered in this package a tax rebate though? Or covering of/contribution to bills?

There's no point offering facts. Baying crowds don't want to be wrong on this. They are salivating over the prospect of seeing a lurid newspaper headline featuring their local MP (preferably the party they didn't vote for) burning a wad of notes, grinning maniacally whilst they sit in a government funded hot tub supping government funded Blossom Hill.
The facts bear no relevance here. We want outrage. And to see those constituency workers have it as bad as the rest of us because... well because they do the legwork for an MP, how dare they.

I agree that it is unreasonable for Staff to bear costs they cannot afford. Of course that isn’t fair.

I feel sorry for those taking pay holidays/cuts or are in danger of their business collapsing. Rail And bus companies have amended timetables understandably but this has made travelling to work for some difficult. No one is paying the taxi fares to enable people to get to work for example.

There are many people being financially disadvantaged at the moment.

I know the government are helping businesses and individuals and that is a great thing. But the help isn’t extended to everyone.

Up to 10,000 seems a lot. That is all.

And I’m not baying. Just curious as to how that figure was decided.

It's a limit not a target. And it saves everyone going backwards and forwards asking permission. Spend it if you need it, we'll approve or not later.
Like knowing you have an empty credit card just in case.

I don't think up to £10k is all that crazy, it's not for the MP alone but for their staff. I can't readily find an average for how many staff an MP typically employs but a look at a couple of local MPs seems to suggest around 5 staff isn't unusual. If that's the case, then it's roughly £2k per head. To potentially fund laptops, screens, phone costs...

I work for an MP. Here's what I experienced:
My colleague goes to the shop and buys 5 very basic PAYG Nokias and credit bundles. He says "I'm going to make a claim to IPSA for this. There's a fund available" I think "Oh good, I don't want to use my own minutes on work stuff and I don't want randoms to have my number"
A week or so later... Facebook is in uproar about MPs being "given £10,000" as though it went straight into their own pockets and I think "hang on, I remember this.... Didn't we buy 5 Nokias?"
Really weird experience for me. Living the mundane reality and then experiencing the completely manufactured outrage.

I know it is a limit. It just seems like a high limit.

I’m not outraged either.

It does seem like a high limit.
I don't think many MP's (if any) will claim anything like that.
I can only assume that its what Scarletoharaseyebrows said:
They want to get all employees home and safe as quickly as possible and they want to avoid delay and extra work caused by a back and forth about what is and isnt allowed.