MPs' £10,000 kitchens on expenses (you couldnt make it up)

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Des · Joined: 18 Jan 2008 Posts: 255 Location: Isle of Bute

MPs claimed nearly £11.5m in additional costs allowances last year

MPs are allowed to claim expenses of up to £10,000 for a new kitchen, £2,000 for furniture and £750 for a TV or stereo for their second homes.

Other claims allowable include £6,335 for a new bathroom, £299.99 for air conditioning units, £300 per rug, £50 for a shredder and £1,000 for a bed.

The figures are in the so-called "John Lewis list" used by Commons officials to list maximum amounts for items.

Most MPs can claim items from the list up to a maximum of £23,000 a year.

The existence of the list - based on prices at the John Lewis store "because it was highly rated by Which magazine" - came to light during a recent information tribunal.

'Going rate'

It is used by Commons validation clerks for the Additional Costs Allowance but had not been made available to MPs.

Commons resources chief Andrew Walker explained he was reluctant to publish it because if MPs saw what the maximum price allowed for items was, it would "become the going rate".

ALLOWABLE CLAIMS
New kitchen: £10,000
New bathroom: £6,335
Washing machine: £350
Flooring: £35 per square metre

In full: 'John Lewis list'

But on Thursday the list was published, following a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association.

Limits include £1,000 for a bed, £600 for a dining table, £550 for a fridge-freezer and £200 for a blender.

Dry cleaning for both clothes and household items is permitted "within reasonable limits" but "antique, luxury or premium-grade" furnishings are not allowed, nor are "extravagant or luxurious" items.

Mortgage interest

The information tribunal has ordered the Commons to produce a detailed breakdown of claims under the Additional Costs Allowance - which can be claimed by all MPs who do not represent an inner London constituency.

It followed a three-year Freedom of Information battle by two journalists and a campaigner, who wanted to see more details of what was being claimed.

Rangemaster stove
MPs can claim up to £10,000 for a new kitchen

The tribunal heard that MPs claim ACA to cover the costs of staying overnight away from their main home, including rent, hotel bills and mortgage interest payments.

Each MP can claim about £23,000 a year and can submit claims of up to £400 a month for food, without a receipt.

They have been able to claim up to £250 per item without receipts - but that is to be scaled down to £25 from 1 April, as part of the continuing review into the wider system of MPs' expenses by the Commons Members Estimate Committee.

'Hardly cheap'

That review, set up following revelations that Tory MP Derek Conway had made payments worth £40,000 to his son for work as a parliamentary researcher while he was a student, is due to be completed by July.

In its interim report, the committee said it would look at "radical options" for creating "a robust and transparent process for claiming allowances and auditing them".

Asked about the list, Matthew Elliott, of the Tax Payers' Alliance pressure group, said: "John Lewis is a fine store, but it is hardly the cheapest place to purchase household goods."

And Labour MP David Winnick said the Members' Estimate Committee to look at the "John Lewis list" as part of its review, adding: "It does look rather expensive for a number of items and obviously the public will say 'Why should John Lewis be the benchmark?"'

This is the source..BBC news site

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Merak · Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 154

What would be even more interesting is to see a comparison between the cost of the same items that they have in their main residence - the stuff they've had to pay for themselves - and the stuff they've got in their 2nd homes.

Summer_08 · Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 274 Location: Scotland

Ridiculous

Gits.

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AllanP · Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 488 Location: Central Scotland.

These so called "expenses" would seem to be nothing new with politicians and has only been exposed now. It beggars the question; "Just how long has this sort of thing been going on, and for how many decades?

We all have "perks" in whatever jobs we do, but this sort of thing has at least been highlighted at long last and we must imagine that there are many red faces at westminster and other governing bodies that are still to be highlighted yet.
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Des · Joined: 18 Jan 2008 Posts: 255 Location: Isle of Bute

Here is another one at it..If this was Joe Public he/she would be up in court & politicians lecture us on morals/scruples etc

MSP Trish Godman Claimed £30,000 To Rent Son's Flat

Mar 17 2008

A SENIOR MSP claimed more than £30,000 in "hotel" expenses for renting her fraudster son's flat, it emerged yesterday.

Labour MSP and Holyrood's deputy presiding officer Trish Godman struck a deal to claim overnight accommodation costs for a flat she was already renting.

The property,close to Holyrood, was owned by her son Gary Mulgrew, one of the Nat West Three, jailed in Texas for defrauding the bank.

Mulgrew bought the flat for £245,000 in 2001 shortly after the offences were committed.

Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, rented it until 2006, when she bought it from her son.

She was not allowed to claim all the rent back by Holyrood authorities as her main home in Glasgow was too close to the parliament for her to qualify for second home perks.

But she was allowed to claim "hotel"expenses - which went towards the rent - when she needed to work late. And she ran up the biggest hotel bill of any MSP.

Officials approved the payments.

But the revelation of the claims will put further pressure on MSPs to reform their generous allowances scheme.

Last week, a review called on the parliament to scrap the perk that allows MSPs who live more than 90 minutes from Holyrood to claim mortgage payments on a second home in Edinburgh.

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AllanP · Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 488 Location: Central Scotland.