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Can’t imagine my mp needing much of the £10k. He doesn’t even do email or social media so presumably just needs another typewriter or inkwell for his home office.
Probably not as much as we are divorced from the costs involved in running a constituency office and staff and suddenly decamping everyone to work from home.
And it’s not £10,000 for free, it’s a cap of £10,000 to set up what’s needed, and must be evidenced and justified.
Why not wait and see what gets spent before heading into orbit
But they've been getting £26000 every year for covering wfh expenses anyway so they will have most things already. Problem is they probably haven't been spending it on things they needed. They will have done renovations and made pretty rooms to increase the value of the home instead of buying printers, tables, chairs and now they are being found out. A floating bird bath isn't a good surface to work off.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/23/mps-expenses-conservatives
The average length of service is 8.7 years which has given them on average over a quarter of a million pounds already for covering wfh.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/election-2019-50250829
In government you don't just go to pc world and buy a laptop. The government IT policy states it has to have a certain spec and have certain things installed to make them secure. You just order what you need from stores and it comes prepared by IT experts. Although I suspect that parliament ignore all this and make up their own rules.
Last week Boris held a conference and used zoom. If I used zoom at work (civil servant) I would get sacked for a breach of security
https://twitter.com/nmsonline/status/1244987385181585410?s=08
BBC News - Coronavirus: Teachers in Singapore stop using Zoom after 'lewd' incidents
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-52240251
I'm sure there are some really good mps out there who are honest and hard working but unfortunately a few bad eggs have ruined it for them so when we see things like this we have little sympathy for them.
Like matt I can claim £4 a month which has generously been increased to £6 a month to cover costs.
They give them selves huge pay rises but block the police pay rises who are not allowed to strike.
I'll just leave this article here.
How many **** staff does an MP have?
Wife, mistress, grown up kids - these things add up!
I never said it was £10 000 per employee ( but I can see why you thought I said that). But realistic costs are under £10 000 per employee if you go argos. No mp has 10 employees. Many employ family members and have one or two part time mps.
That's true and I can see that you can see why i thought that too.
I assume you mean 'costs are under £1000 per employee if you go Argos' but as for the No MP has 10 employees
I just googled and found this:
https://www.theipsa.org.uk/mp-costs/your-mp/
and a quick scan of random names, suggests maybe an average of 5 or so. Many are part time, but even then you can't give them half a desk or half a computer - so you're right, £10K should be plenty. But the fact they have up to £10K doesn't mean they have been given it in cash to spend as they want, and even with the real concerns over the ease with which they can spend and lack of receipts, there will have to be some justification of the claimed amounts and the chance for excessive claims to be challenged, by IPSA or the press who are pretty good at this sort of thing.
What have these employees been using when the have been in the office? Is that equipment not transferable?
I now you don’t like them but you can’t just ignore the facts.
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What have these employees been using when the have been in the office? Is that equipment not transferable?
Possibly, possibly not. That's why up to £10K has been made available if needed.
Took laptop, monitor, chair, mouse and keyboard from my work before the current lockdown started. Only had to buy a cheap desk from IKEA. Not going to claim it back as it seems a bit churlish and I'm saving money and time from travelling, plus not being tempted to buy food from the tasty café near work.
But 10k for setting up a home office and such like for staff does seem a bit steep. As many have said it's not like MPs have a good track record on expenses.
So all the minsters & there minions can work from home so what about the rest of there employees all the Civil servants that are still going to work some on public transport all sat in office's where's there help...............
“a huge increase in workload from distressed constituents as a result of coronavirus issues”
This actually gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in ages from the forum. Cheers!
Loving the notion that people actually think 'normal' companies are bunging wodges of cash at people to wfh.
I have had a paycut (enforced on all above a certain threshold) and am using my own laptop and own keyboard to do my job and the extra work caused by furloughing of members of my team.
****ing MPs with their snouts in the trough. The usual suspects will max it out as normal, many won't but the ones that do should be made to declare it (I assume they will). Heaven forbid they might have to dredge their own duck moat to save a bit of cash to buy a PC.
How many sets of PPE does £10k buy?
Six and a half million! You just know its all going to be £1000 chairs and so on
None of this should be getting spent on an mps home. They should all be set up for working from home anyway. The mps should not be visiting their second homes.
There may be a genuine case to claim some expenses for setting up mps staff to work from home, those expenses should be audited as normal. Tj it is appalling that oversight of these expenses has been "relaxed".
IPSA's Board met yesterday to discuss how we can support you and your staff
during the UK's response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak......There will be an immediate increase of £10,000 to your
office costs budget. This is to cover any additional costs you may incur to set
up working remotely as a result of coronavirus. This extra budget will be
available until March 2021.
As said the money will kit out staff members working from home who can't be presumed to either be able or competent to move office equipment by themselves. And depending on their role can't necessarily wait for a mover to do it for them.
I work from home, have done so for a long time, I’ve set my office up for approx £4K (I still work in IT so do need high end devices).
So with even 3 staffers that would be over the £10k threshold.
There is a lot of bullshit being spouted here. There is still a need for evidence but immediate proof has been relaxed temporarily:
Evidence Requirements: If you do not have access to a receipt or invoice,
but cannot wait for reimbursement, we will pay claims without evidence and
ask you to send in the evidence as soon as you can.
MPs to get extra money to work from home, passport office ordered back to work and told "you're going to get coronavirus anyway"
Well I'm happy to say my MP only claimed £8510 for everything last year
£3000 of which was rent.
MP's STAFF to get money to facilitate working from home.
And while i agree the PP office staff thing is dumb, just because that is being done doesn't mean it isn't right to sort it for the MP support workers. Direct your anger at that.
Indeed, don't join in the race to the bottom, equality doesn't mean dragging everyone else down.
I couldn't take any kit home with me when we closed the office. Waiting for work to provide me with a laptop. Suspect the civil service budget won't go any further than that, so dining table for me, with uncomfortable chair