Pay and Allowances Blog - AGAIN!

Is is sad but true - here we go again on MPs pay and allowances. I fear I have spent too much time already having to correct rubbish written in the Hate Mail (sorry Daily Mail) and Express. They love to find a few MPs who think we should be paid more and claim 'MPs think this or that' when it is probably a small minority.

For the record these are my views on the latest round of speculation and misinformation:

Pay. We get about £61,000 a year. As I have said this is fine for me personally I am not desperate for any more. I don't think it reflects the job though. It is less than a deputy head of a large school and probably less than if I had stayed in local government. I continually find myself sorting out problems and in meetings with people sitting round the table who earn much more than me in government, education, health and the private sector. As we all tend to work about 60-70 hours per week it is not that much as an hourly rate either. But as I say even though I could earn more elsewhere working a normal working week I am not personally asking for more money.

However, what I really get fed up with is being accused of taking above inflation pay awards based on newspaper headlines. Year after year we have taken at or below inflation and get no recognition for it from the media or public. So we set up independent bodies like the SSRB to do the work. They come back and say we have fallen behind the civil service grade we were linked to and say we should take an above inflation increase to catch up. The media go bonkers. we vote against the independent pay review and take less than we were offered but that bit doesn't get any front pages. Ironically we are all in favour of not voting on our wages - and that is right. But of course the consequence of us not having a vote is that we would have had bigger pay increases over the last couple of years!!! We are now back in this situation. We will vote to stop voting on our pay (quite right) but will vote to reject the independent Pay review which says we should have more! How bizarre. But I guess we will not get one letter of congratulations for taking a pay cut again. I am not looking for praise but an ounce of recognition would be welcome.

Living in London Allowance

Once again this contentious issue raises its head. The committee set up to look at it suggest the alternatives and the Hate Mail and Express pick up on 1 suggestion as though we have decided upon it.

The reality is that some form of reasonable way needs to be found to allow MPs to live in London away from their constituencies when parliament is sitting.

For what it is worth I think a system similar to those of most of my friends in the voluntary sector or local government have would be ideal. There is an overnight stay allowance and a daily food allowance. I think this set as say a senior civil service rate for London would be alright. You then claim for the number of night required in London (or back in the constituency based on which is the main home.

We have a crazy system at the moment where the only way to claim is against the property you have (which you have to find yourself) and its running costs. I hate having to pay for its running costs by claiming but I can't afford to run another property/ hotel stay in London for 155 nights out of a salary equivalent to a deputy head. Making parliament the preserve of the rich again would be a terrible mistake. A grant system would not be popular and therefore will be rejected but its the simplist way.