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[Richie London]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/43505/Secret-25-pay-rise-for-MPs

[file28]

taking the p**s out of every working man and woman in this country and as for a second home allowance they should donate that to those of us who are just managing to keep the one and only home we have
sooner the better we have a revolution and shoot the f***ing lot of them

[MaxV6]

I'm not outraged, but I'm certainly less than enthusiastic about it....

what actually bothers me is this bit...

But on top of their salaries, MPs claimed an average of £136,000 in expenses and allowances last year

for 2 reasons..

1) actually , potentially in defence of the MP's , how is an expense "on top of" one's salary....   surely by definition , it's an expense , and either comes out of your pocket, or is reimbursed , so that ultimately it doesn't....   that's not in addition to one's salary surely??  god help reps and the like if the press implication here was applied to it's logical conclusion...  or me for that matter.....    travel and accommodation expenses are often quite high in my working life...    and are payable by the client........    as expenses...      I'd take umbrage at anyone accusing me of artificially increasing my income by this means...    however, claiming them for my wife, would be unethical and an abuse of the concept....    likewise paying my son to sit on his arse all day , and claiming it as a research expense,  would equally be wrong....    

2) Allowances, The abusers of the system really do up their salary like this, and frankly should be removed from office, both to stop the money haemorrhage and to protect te reputation of those that don;t abuse the system....       not ALL MP's are greedy good for nothing self-abusers...

or at least that's my impression of the situation....      I hope it's the case...    

[MaxV6]

taking the p**s out of every working man and woman in this country and as for a second home allowance they should donate that to those of us who are just managing to keep the one and only home we have
sooner the better we have a revolution and shoot the f***ing lot of them

to be fair....    second home allowance.

if you represent the people of Durham, for example....    and , naturally,  live there...........    surely having a modest second home in London where you have to spend about half your working life, makes more sense than paying London hotel rates 5 nights a week for 8 months of the year?

of course I could be wrong....    but having been in the position of , in the past,  having 2 homes, (1 on Anglesey, 1 in High Wycombe)  for very similar reasons....    maybe I'm seeing it from a different perspective....   nothing to do with holiday homes or luxury, everything to do with practical solutions to the issue...

[Richie London]

summer recess not far away, they can go and spend there expenses in the sun probably in there villas bought by the taxpayer.


richie

[file28]

i'll have to remember next time i work away from to claim the allowance instead of trying to find a b&b in the measly budget we get of 30 pounds per

[albitz]

i think the point maxv6 is making is exactly why these allowances were introduced,the problem is that many of them appear to shamlessly abuse the privelige,which to me is tax evasion and theft

[Kevin Wood]

Having a bed for the night when working away from home is one thing. Making a decision to buy a 2nd home for that purpose is also not unusual, but only with a small allowance from your employer, I'd have thought. Expecting your employer to furnish it from the John Lewis catalogue is quite another thing.

In the private sector this simply wouldn't happen. You'd get an allowance to cover the cost of a bedsit / B&B and, if you bought a property, and started adding kitchens, furniture, etc. on expenses the tax man would start taking more than a passing interest in your tax returns.

One rule for them, another for the rest of us.  

Kevin

[HolyCount]

taking the p**s out of every working man and woman in this country and as for a second home allowance they should donate that to those of us who are just managing to keep the one and only home we have
sooner the better we have a revolution and shoot the f***ing lot of them

to be fair....    second home allowance.

if you represent the people of Durham, for example....    and , naturally,  live there...........    surely having a modest second home in London where you have to spend about half your working life, makes more sense than paying London hotel rates 5 nights a week for 8 months of the year?

of course I could be wrong....    but having been in the position of , in the past,  having 2 homes, (1 on Anglesey, 1 in High Wycombe)  for very similar reasons....    maybe I'm seeing it from a different perspective....   nothing to do with holiday homes or luxury, everything to do with practical solutions to the issue...

No sound reason why visiting MPs shouldn't be required to overnight in a parliament owned and run hostel ---- cheaper to run, easier to secure, able to be in use 7 days a week (instead of 2nd homes being left unoccupied half of the time)

[HolyCount]

This is also typical of the double standards employed by MPs --- having restricted every other public body pay rise to around 2.9% ..... bar stewards every one of them!!!!!!!

[waspy]

I haven't read the article & i wish not to.
Though i've this to say... When we evade paying tax of any kind we get prosecuted for it, because they say we have broken the law, but when they evade the truth & scam the tax payer (us) they say it's legal. The whole system is a farce

[jereboam]

Having a bed for the night when working away from home is one thing. Making a decision to buy a 2nd home for that purpose is also not unusual, but only with a small allowance from your employer, I'd have thought. Expecting your employer to furnish it from the John Lewis catalogue is quite another thing.

In the private sector this simply wouldn't happen. You'd get an allowance to cover the cost of a bedsit / B&B and, if you bought a property, and started adding kitchens, furniture, etc. on expenses the tax man would start taking more than a passing interest in your tax returns.

One rule for them, another for the rest of us.  

Kevin

In the private sector, if you are working overseas on a lengthy assignment, you may well be put into a company flat.  Forget John Lewis, think Harrods.  Why do you think there are new flats being built with price tags in the millions?  It's companies paying the rent.

Of course, this may not be obvious to the Omega-owning classes, but not all the Porsches, Rollers and Lambos belong to footballers or the independently wealthy.

On the other hand, I do tend to agree that some of our representatives in Parliament may not actually be delivering value for money

[markey mark]

I haven't read the article & i wish not to.
Though i've this to say... When we evade paying tax of any kind we get prosecuted for it, because they say we have broken the law, but when they evade the truth & scam the tax payer (us) they say it's legal. The whole system is a farce

im with you sick of reading all this crap !! i struggle on 30k a year   with 3 kids and £700 a month mortage  

[waspy]

I haven't read the article & i wish not to.
Though i've this to say... When we evade paying tax of any kind we get prosecuted for it, because they say we have broken the law, but when they evade the truth & scam the tax payer (us) they say it's legal. The whole system is a farce

im with you sick of reading all this crap !! i struggle on 30k a year   with 3 kids and £700 a month mortage  

+ £10.00

[markey mark]

I haven't read the article & i wish not to.
Though i've this to say... When we evade paying tax of any kind we get prosecuted for it, because they say we have broken the law, but when they evade the truth & scam the tax payer (us) they say it's legal. The whole system is a farce

im with you sick of reading all this crap !! i struggle on 30k a year   with 3 kids and £700 a month mortage  

+ £10.00

  ;Dyea that goes towards the wifes boob job