[Politics] MPs give themselves an extra £10k

[Dick Head]

[tweet]1248207909378338816[/tweet]

https://twitter.com/wesstreeting/status/1248207909378338816

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Because they will still have to pay rent on their office. They probably have desktops in their office so need to get laptops for their staff to be able to work from home. Throw in encryption requirements for those laptops, software costs, paying their staffs' internet, electricity etc for a home office and other one off costs you can easily get to £10k extra.

They will have been paying office rent anyway, so this isn’t an extra cost.
Desk tops? Are you serious?

 

[Mr Bridger]

If this is the case then Parliament really does need to be dragged into the 21st century and use electronic methods of communication. I guess they’d then ask for another huge sum to install the internet on their computers.

Not everyone this day and age has electronic methods of communication I guess.

 

[studio150]

paying their staffs' internet, electricity etc for a home office

Hands up if working from home you get these costs paid by your employer

 

[swindonseagull]

WFH or not Robert Buckland MP or any of his aides cant be arsed to reply to a email I sent him last Thursday....just an auto reply.
yet the MP for Swindon North replied in a few hours and forwarded it to.................Robert Buckland

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Hands up if working from home you get these costs paid by your employer

You can claim them on your tax return if not

 

[Westdene Seagull]

They will have been paying office rent anyway, so this isn’t an extra cost.
Desk tops? Are you serious?

You suggested, or at least implied, that the £26k should be able to cover the costs of WFH and that there shouldn't be any extra costs for doing so. The £26k can't cover the extra costs if it's already budgeted for things like rent and other fixed costs. Of course many offices use desktops - they're cheaper.

 

[GT49er]

MPs receive on average 300 letters a week; answering all of them by second class post will cost £9,500 - remember they won't be able to use the House mailing facilities.

£30 per reply? Blimey, the cost of stamps must have rocketed since I sent out my Christmas cards!

 

[swindonseagull]

Hands up if working from home you get these costs paid by your employer

£15 per month for internet and electricity...

 

[Audax]

At best, it is a WFH contingency fund that allows for 4/5 good laptops for staff to work on from home.

If they're spending £2k on laptops for civil servants, they need their heads checked. 2 grand for a laptop you're looking at gaming specs, not business. I'd be expecting them to be getting closer to 15-20 laptops (with all required software) that would be perfectly suitable (probably still more than suitable) for the majority of their staff.

Desk tops? Are you serious?

It wouldn't surprise me if they're still using desktops in their offices. Desktops can't be taken home and left on trains, after all.

It’s 2020, do MPs receive 300 physical letters and reply with a snail mail physical letter?

They will still be receiving snail mail. Some people still prefer it.

If this is the case then Parliament really does need to be dragged into the 21st century and use electronic methods of communication. I guess they’d then ask for another huge sum to install the internet on their computers.

If they receive a physical letter through the snail mail, how do you propose that they respond without using snail mail? I would almost certainly be safe to bet my house that the vast majority of those snail mail letters do not include a phone number or email address to reply to - just a physical street address.

It is actually already far easier (assuming you're are clued up on tech like we are on NSC) to contact your MP through electronic means. However, there's a whole generation of older folks out there who are *not* clued up on using modern electronic methods of communication. For example, my mother-in-law flatly refuses to have an email address (we had to set one up for her for her Android tablet that she uses for web browsing and very recently Zoom, but she has no access to it).

 

[Gwylan]

£30 per reply? Blimey, the cost of stamps must have rocketed since I sent out my Christmas cards!

Your maths is very out

300 x 0.61 = £183
£180 x 52 = £9,516

of course, it won't be a whole year but there's the cost of stationery to factor in too

 

[GT49er]

Your maths is very out

300 x 0.61 = £183
£180 x 52 = £9,516.

No - my maths was and is fine. Your post was misleading, or poorly expressed - if you'd added 'over the course of a year' it would have been fine.

"MPs receive on average 300 letters a week; answering all of them by second class post will cost £9,500."
Based on that sentence, the maths was perfect.

 

[Gwylan]

It is actually already far easier (assuming you're are clued up on tech like we are on NSC) to contact your MP through electronic means. However, there's a whole generation of older folks out there who are *not* clued up on using modern electronic methods of communication. For example, my mother-in-law flatly refuses to have an email address (we had to set one up for her for her Android tablet that she uses for web browsing and very recently Zoom, but she has no access to it).

The ONS says that something like 7% of households had no internet connection - nearly 4 million households, about 8 million people - that's not a small number

 

[Gwylan]

No - my maths was and is fine. Your post was misleading, or poorly expressed - if you'd added 'over the course of a year' it would have been fine.

"MPs receive on average 300 letters a week; answering all of them by second class post will cost £9,500."
Based on that sentence, the maths was perfect.

Well, I would have thought it was obvious that MPs employ full-time secretaries not ones who work one week a year. I think you have a strange idea of what MPs and their staff do.

 

[GT49er]

Well, I would have thought it was obvious that MPs employ full-time secretaries not ones who work one week a year. I think you have a strange idea of what MPs and their staff do.

There was nothing about giving MPs an extra £10K per year, just an extra £10K available now, if needed. I have an excellent idea of what MPs and their staff do, and I can also work out the cost of replying to 300 letters (as opposed to 300 letters a week for a year).
The answer was right - the question setting left something to be desired!

Anyway, no point in squabbling further - I'm out now. Cheers!

 

[Wrong-Direction]

There was nothing about giving MPs an extra £10K per year, just an extra £10K available now, if needed. I have an excellent idea of what MPs and their staff do, and I can also work out the cost of replying to 300 letters (as opposed to 300 letters a week for a year).
The answer was right - the question setting left something to be desired!

Anyway, no point in squabbling further - I'm out now. Cheers!

You you please list what they and their staff do

Sent from my SM-A600FN using Tapatalk

 

[lawros left foot]

Why aren’t aMPs getting 80% of their £80,000 salary?


That’s the £64,000 question.



(Stolen from Twitter)

 

[RossyG]

Why aren’t aMPs getting 80% of their £80,000 salary?


That’s the £64,000 question.



(Stolen from Twitter)

Because they’re not furloughed and are doing their jobs.

People working from home are still on full pay.

 

[Norman Potting]

£50 per month for WFH and £32 of this is subject to tax/NI. Figure has been at this level for at least the last 11 years as has the 45p per mile car allowance.

 

[Badger]

Hands up if working from home you get these costs paid by your employer

I'm getting $50 a month to cover my internet from my employer. They've also given us up to $250 to buy a second screen if we need it.