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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

Old Skier said:
Most if not all MPs have constituency offices which are well stocked staffed and already being paid for by us, the tax payer. Most work even during normal periods are done in these offices.
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The staff may well be working from home now though, or if 2 staff then one in the office, one at home so as to keep to the 2m rule. They may need to buy duplicate equipment where previously it was shared.

I'm not defending excess but legitimate expenses are perfectly valid.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
The staff may well be working from home now though, or if 2 staff then one in the office, one at home so as to keep to the 2m rule. They may need to buy duplicate equipment where previously it was shared.

I'm not defending excess but legitimate expenses are perfectly valid.
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How can you put a 10k rise on it! I agree if there’s a legitimate expense they should not be out of pocket, but justify an increase of over 33% and relaxing the claim rules at the start of the financial year is just irresponsible imo.
 
pauldj42 said:
They already get up to £26,000 per year to do all you say! Do you honestly believe they need it up’d by 10k for 4-6 weeks at home.

Are they not saving by not using their 2nd home on heating and light etc.
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I would not expect them to get anywhere near the 10k limit and if anyone did then I would expect a pretty thorough examination of the receipts and explanations of why they got so high. The figure may be an arbitrary one, plucked from the top of someones head.

This money is not for their second homes but to cover additional office expenses, as I read it. They are not using the lights or heating in their offices but the standing charges are the same and they have to be paid still. They will use less and that will be shown in the next set of bills that they claim for. The point is that some of the expenses are now transferred to their house, new equipment may be required at home to replicate what they needed at their office.

When this is all over it will be interesting to see what was claimed for, how justifiable it all looks.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
I would not expect them to get anywhere near the 10k limit and if anyone did then I would expect a pretty thorough examination of the receipts and explanations of why they got so high. The figure may be an arbitrary one, plucked from the top of someones head.

This money is not for their second homes but to cover additional office expenses, as I read it. They are not using the lights or heating in their offices but the standing charges are the same and they have to be paid still. They will use less and that will be shown in the next set of bills that they claim for. The point is that some of the expenses are now transferred to their house, new equipment may be required at home to replicate what they needed at their office.

When this is all over it will be interesting to see what was claimed for, how justifiable it all looks.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...navirus-MPs-office-expenses-hiked-10-000.html

https://www.thenational.scot/news/1...-000-cover-home-working-coronavirus-lockdown/
 
Blue in Munich said:
Anyone else thinking they need to announce any extension today? If the current one expires Tuesday, I wonder how many of the muppets will think "Well it stops tomorrow so going out on Bank Holiday Monday won't hurt..." :unsure:
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I noticed that on booking sites like golfnow you could book tee times from Tuesday onwards. I guess this is because no formal extension has been announced.
I think we all expect it, and maybe the Boris situation has delayed announcing a little. Agree it needs to happen soon.
 
pauldj42 said:
They already get up to £26,000 per year to do all you say! Do you honestly believe they need it up’d by 10k for 4-6 weeks at home.

Are they not saving by not using their 2nd home on heating and light etc.
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If you've got 4 staff working from home, that's 4x desks, 4x chairs, 4x small filing cabinet. The list goes on and on. A decent chair is the thick end of £100. A decent desk is at least £200. Seriously, £10k to equip and run an office for a number of home workers is easily spent. If anything it looks on the light side.
 
Hobbit said:
If you've got 4 staff working from home, that's 4x desks, 4x chairs, 4x small filing cabinet. The list goes on and on. A decent chair is the thick end of £100. A decent desk is at least £200. Seriously, £10k to equip and run an office for a number of home workers is easily spent. If anything it looks on the light side.
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Or you take the desks and chairs from the office or you furlough some staff or 2 staff work in the office or you use the 26k already allocated.
 
bobmac said:
How many MPs employ their partners as secretaries and pay them up to £50,000 salary and they already work from home, the MPs home?
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How many self employed people do the same. Absolutely hundreds if not more, its not just MPs. If you want to jump on that band wagon the same needs be applied to any self employed person of business owner doing the same to dodge a bit of tax. I could name dozens i know of guilty of that.
 
bobmac said:
How many MPs employ their partners as secretaries and pay them up to £50,000 salary and they already work from home, the MPs home?
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39282279

If this was put into place then the answer is a lot less than there used to be :LOL:.

In 2017 1/4 still employed family members but no new members were allowed to. Allowing for MP's retiring, losing their seats etc it must be a good deal fewer than 1/4 by now.
 
Just seen the police setting up a drone at the entrance to our lane. I'd say there has been at least 20 times more people than normal walking/biking down the lane nowadays which makes keeping 2 m away form people a little tricky at times. But assuming people haven't driven here and they are not groups of people not sure what the police can say. Strange thing is that once you off the lane on to the footpaths across the fields, which is far nicer than walking down a lane, you hardly see anyone.
 
pauldj42 said:
Or you take the desks and chairs from the office or you furlough some staff or 2 staff work in the office or you use the 26k already allocated.
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Do you really think its a good idea to have removals men traipsing about the country? I thought lockdown was about minimal movement. I've signed expenses off for home working, and bought for my own, not including elec, gas etc. Setting up home offices doesn't come cheap. At a time when constituencies need to be well supported by their MP's, who will probably need the majority if not all of their staff working, I have no problem at all with those expenses.

The £10k is a limit, not a target. Once the 'start-up' costs are spent there'll be relatively small running costs.

You appear to be coming at this from a perspective of trust. I don't doubt the odd MP or staffer will abuse it. Down the years I certainly had a few people abuse their expenses but, equally, the vast majority were not only spot on, they didn't claim for a number of small purchases. However, the big issue is that they continue to run an efficient office at a time when it is most needed.
 
Hobbit said:
Do you really think its a good idea to have removals men traipsing about the country? I thought lockdown was about minimal movement. I've signed expenses off for home working, and bought for my own, not including elec, gas etc. Setting up home offices doesn't come cheap. At a time when constituencies need to be well supported by their MP's, who will probably need the majority if not all of their staff working, I have no problem at all with those expenses.

The £10k is a limit, not a target. Once the 'start-up' costs are spent there'll be relatively small running costs.

You appear to be coming at this from a perspective of trust. I don't doubt the odd MP or staffer will abuse it. Down the years I certainly had a few people abuse their expenses but, equally, the vast majority were not only spot on, they didn't claim for a number of small purchases. However, the big issue is that they continue to run an efficient office at a time when it is most needed.
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I don’t doubt there may be legitimate expenses, I don’t doubt we could both do whatiffery or whatabouttery until the cows come home, my issue is the timing and the amount.

As at 01 Apr they get up to £26k for the year for everything they need to do, this year they have £36k, why not propose the £26k be reviewed after 6 months once IPSA are aware of any issues or problems the MP’s have had.

I’ll bow out now mate.
 
pauldj42 said:
I don’t doubt there may be legitimate expenses, I don’t doubt we could both do whatiffery or whatabouttery until the cows come home, my issue is the timing and the amount.

As at 01 Apr they get up to £26k for the year for everything they need to do, this year they have £36k, why not propose the £26k be reviewed after 6 months once IPSA are aware of any issues or problems the MP’s have had.

I’ll bow out now mate.
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Timing; I don't think the pandemic was assigned a schedule.

Amount; you're right, we could do a what if/what about. I've bounced expenses before because someone has claimed for a gold-plated whatever instead of a plain steel one. I'd be very surprised if the same doesn't apply to them. Equally, why not £40k if that's what it takes?

You've seen a figure and baulked at it. Have you baulked at it because you know what it takes to set up and run home working for a staff complement you know? I'd hazard you've baulked at it on, mainly, an emotional level.
 
HowlingGale said:
Can't the MPs and their staff just do what everyone else does and use tables and chairs already in their houses?
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They can but its illegal, and it isn't what everyone else does. A decent company will have a procedure for setting up home working which includes a lot of input from the Health and Safety team. "What is the right desk/chair combination for sitting there for 8 hours?" If a company doesn't include H&S, any issues raised by a staff member, e.g. bad back... I'm sure you get the drift.
 
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