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.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable - it could’ve been an expense budget (for laptops, Wi-fi etc) but MPs need to be able to coordinate help. I don’t think it’s an either/or choice re nhs funding.

Disgraceful. It's just disgusting behaviour

What is @Babymamaroon ?

The actions of the journalists?

Or are you still choosing to misunderstand what was really done?

I think the fact this extra expense budget has been magically found out of thin air, to support people on 100% wages to wfh is a disgrace.

The only thing people should be entitled to is a laptop not a £10k budget to tap into.

We're hardly 'all in this together' when the privileged few seemingly have an endless money tap dripping away for them.

Should MP's case workers stop dealing with constituents queries then @Babymamaroon?

j712adrian isn't the usual tax allowance for homeworkers £6 per month?

It's not quite the same as a £10,000 additional expenses account is it?

I'm a civil servant i.e. work for the Government and will get - if I'm lucky - £5 PER MONTH to pay for extra electricity. they assume that any other costs will be counteracted by the saving for commuting. Fucking unfair! £10,000 is more than half my gross salary!!!!!

Should MP's case workers stop dealing with constituents queries then

Why not provide laptops and cheap mobiles?

Rather than access to a very generous sounding ‘fund’?

The fund is to provide the staff with mobiles and laptops - logistically it is easier to devolve the fund to the MP to manage (and provide receipts for purchases) than it is it to centrally manage the needs of potentially 2400 staff surely?

Myrtle - they can get a laptop. Or perhaps use the 100% salary they are getting over many now on 80% salary working full time, to fund their own equipment! God forbid the thought of it.

£10k budget - WTAF. Greedy and out of touch with reality.

It's not £10k per person, it's £10k per MP's office, split across however many staff they have.

It's probably about the right level to fund a laptop set up correctly, a mobile phone and call costs, a second screen if needed, for each member of staff they have. Most won't need it all because at least some staff will have laptops already.

The fund is to provide the staff with mobiles and laptops

It appears to cover more than that. Electricity/heating were mentioned. I’m not sure if wifi was specifically mentioned, but it’s cropped up in conversation.

logistically it is easier to devolve the fund to the MP to manage (and provide receipts for purchases) than it is it to centrally manage the needs of potentially 2400 staff surely?

That’s not how any (private) company I’ve ever worked for would do it.

They’d find out what was required.

Then they’d buy precisely that.

No room for fudging or piss taking. Particularly when the people involved have dreadful form for that in the past.

I’m really enjoying how we keep being told receipts will be provided. Well duh, I should god damn hope so. Bare minimum requirements.

My employer allows BYOD (bring your own device) for very limited access. You can basically get in to emails and a few other bits but none of the secure data, servers, etc. Because those need to be properly secured. Similarly, they can't allow MPs staff to access confidential info using whichever random laptop they pick up from Currys.

Right now MPs and their staff will be flooded with contact from constituents. They need to be able to work effectively and efficiently with the correct equipment.

and I replied to you about heating and lighting earlier - it was mentioned in a journalist article and I suggested they'd just transposed the costs that are involved in an office to a home office, not that it was likely to be used in this way.

"To support this, IPSA will be adding £10,000 to each MP’s office costs budget to cover additional equipment and other costs related to setting up home working. This will be available immediately
and until the end of the 2020-21 financial year. This amount can be accessed by claiming from the office costs budget as normal; please enter ‘coronavirus’ in the free text field of the claim (this will
help IPSA to monitor these costs, to ensure we are providing appropriate support).

You can start purchasing what you need now and we will roll over any unspent amount to the next financial year.
Remember that you can also claim other costs which are additional to those that are part of the normal cost of living in the home – for example, additional electricity or heating costs or phone bills. "

This is what the MPs were actually told by IPSA.

Specific info re utilities
"Can staff members claim for part of their electricity and gas bills as they’re working at home and
using more energy now?
Yes, both MPs and staff members can claim for part of their bills, where the costs are in addition to
the normal costs of living in the home. A pro-rata amount can be calculated by working out the
proportion of the house/flat that is being used as a home office (for example one room out of six
rooms in a house = 1/6) and the number of hours per day when the room is used as an office (for
example eight hours out of 24 = 1/3). In this example, 1/18 of the total household bill would be
claimable."

At a glance (I haven't looked at them for a while) the calculation approach for utility costs looks in line with the usual HMRC guidance for people who operate businesses from home.

its for them and their staff - I imagine most MPs would work from a laptop because they need to be mobile, but office staff mat have an office based desk top, so need to get a laptop, maybe IT assistance to get them on to cloud based software, the software, monitor, office chair.

The organisation I work for paid for chairs, monitors, anything else specific we needed - but we all hotdesk so use laptops and cloud based software already. £10k isn't going to go that far - how many office staff do MPs have on average?
There will be GDPR implications of staff using own laptops that might be shared with other family members.
A lot of the cost will be offset by lower travel costs anyway.

I don’t know anyone currently wfh because of CV who can expense any of their electric / heating costs.

Its an extra 10k on to a 26k expense budget.

Its excessive.

And surely travel costs and others will be significantly reduced anyway, a great deal of these new expenses should be offset against that?

Presumably travel expense claims will naturally be lower, yes. I’m thinking that mp’s offices aren’t like private firms where people all have up to date corporate laptops and an IT budget makes sense. The PR for this otoh could’ve been managed better

It's interesting how people who actually work for MPs have explained what it actually means, yet people are still frothing with outrage. You can see what public money is spent on online if you're really arsed thanks to transparency. And maybe look for jobs in the public sector if you feel so hard done by.

I think MP expenses at least are a separate budget?

It's interesting how people who actually work for MPs have explained what it actually means

What these people don’t seem to understand is that PR is everything.

I’m seeing this shared on FB all over the place to great outrage. But it isn’t surprising.
We have a group of people who’ve behaved appallingly in the past with regards to expenses. No ones forgotten that. Given this, extrema care needs always to be taken in how expenses are covered.

They could have simply said ‘laptops and phones to be made available to staff who need them’.

But they didn’t. They talked about a ‘fund’, the specifics of which it could cover was a little hazy. It sounds high. At a time when people are losing their jobs and medical staff are suffering for lack of adequate PPE.

It was badly handled and the backlash isn’t very surprising.

Yes it came out like they were giving £10k to mps for whatevs, whereas in reality I’m sure it’s needed IT equipment to keep govt working. My Facebook has been full of screaming about this too as if it’s a direct drain on the nhs...