£10,000 bonus on top of £81,000 for MP's

[Chops54]

I've been told that if you get UC you will not get a handout in June. I was laid off last week as a non productive contractor so my daughter is going to look into this for me next week. I'm expecting the company that I flogged my guts out for to ring me soon when something goes wrong. I'll take great pleasure in telling them to **** off!

 

[Tony L]

Signing on is impossible. My son has just applied for UC online and then has to phone up for a consultation, but when he phones up, he gets an automated message saying call back tomorrow. He’s been phoning every day for over 3 weeks now so if you think you’ll need government help in June, best start now, because then you might stand some chance of actually getting through to someone around Christmas time

It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I’m lucky in that I’ve always had the mindset that lives very frugally within my means and squirrels stuff away, a trait I learned from a period in real poverty on the dole in the ‘80s (also why I will never owe anyone any money). I also learned just how hopeless state bureaucracy is for the end-user. As such I can wait this out, and when the bail-out cash I’m owed does eventually arrive it will just put back some of what I’ve lost along the way. I have sympathy for folk who don’t live this way and I’m sure a heck of a lot of people/businesses who live their lives in debt will clearly be going bankrupt pretty shortly.

 

[Nagraboy]

I've been told that if you get UC you will not get a handout in June. I was laid off last week as a non productive contractor so my daughter is going to look into this for me next week. I'm expecting the company that I flogged my guts out for to ring me soon when something goes wrong. I'll take great pleasure in telling them to **** off!

My partner got laid off as he’s an agency worker. The employer he was with at the time could’ve given him the furlough payments but they couldn’t be bothered to apply for it so just let everyone go. He applied for UC about 2 weeks ago, received an appointment for a phone consultation about a week later via his online account on the gov.uk website without having to make the appointment himself, and has now been informed that the (as yet unspecified) UC payments will start 24th April. Hope your situation improves soon.

 

[Chops54]

I’ll be fine thank you nagraboy. I’ve fought big battles than this over the last few years. I hope things work out ok for you too.

 

[hifinutt]

some very painful situations , the nipper has been reduced to 2 days a week and we are just hoping to view a flat by virtual means as landlords are desparate right now to fill their accomodation .

 

[Joe]

Signing on is impossible. My son has just applied for UC online and then has to phone up for a consultation, but when he phones up, he gets an automated message saying call back tomorrow. He’s been phoning every day for over 3 weeks now so if you think you’ll need government help in June, best start now, because then you might stand some chance of actually getting through to someone around Christmas time

Similar problem in America...so far the number people unemployed by the crisis is near 20 million, but that is just the number officially recognised . Apparently there are millions more who can't get reristered because they have to do it by phone and that is proving impossible.

 

[lagavullin10y]

That's nothing! Italian MPs get a total of about 25,000 Euro PER MONTH. 300,000 P.A. About 12,000-odd is their salary and pension and health payments, on which they pay some income tax. So they can say with a straight face that they only earn about 8,500. In addition, they get another 12,000-odd in various benefits and expenses. For instance 3,000 Euro for a flat in Rome, 2,000 for an assistant ("bag carrier") other sums for travel, maintaining an office in their constituency, postal expenses. But the thing is, they get this money automatically, even if they do not have any of these expenses, no questions asked no justification required or expected. On these "expenses" they pay no tax.
And Euro-MPs get paid even better.

Their cry for solidarity this week was disgusting. Shameless use of dead people for own benefits.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I would assume that they are deemed civil servants, so get similar pension rights - non contributory, index linked, final salary scheme.

...Which has not been the case for Civil Service pensions for, ooh, probably getting on for a couple of decades now, but hey, these ideas are persistent.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I've been told that if you get UC you will not get a handout in June. I was laid off last week as a non productive contractor so my daughter is going to look into this for me next week. I'm expecting the company that I flogged my guts out for to ring me soon when something goes wrong. I'll take great pleasure in telling them to **** off!

Tell them your daily rate will be £X, where x=> previous weekly salary. Plus expenses.

 

[I.D.C.]

As usual, it's not the full story, but let's not let facts get in the way of outrage shall we?
They are allowed up to £10,000 in additional expenses for IT equipment to allow them and their staff to work from home during the current lockdown.
Most MPs have three or four staff. So say five staff need
1 x laptop - estimate £800 at current prices
1 x external monitor - £150
1 x MS Office Home and Business - £250
1 x business broadband line - £350 a year
1 x router -£200
1 x printer - £150

There's near enough £2000 per person. Most won't spend that much, anything they don't spend goes back to the treasury

10 grand would buy a decent turntable. Imagine MP's not having a computer at home with no internet.

 

[Thorn]

There are very few jobs with such a salary which require no experience, no qualifications and no continuing professional education,

 

[richardg]

Get in the real world. For what they do, hours etc. £91K is absolute chicken poop. Do something equivalent in industry and double the salary at least.

I think stats have been presented to you before to prove that industry managers don't earn anything like what you say. I guess you didn't believe what was shown.

 

[Seeker_UK]

I think stats have been presented to you before to prove that industry managers don't earn anything like what you say. I guess you didn't believe what was shown.

Their salary might not reach those levels but that's usually a tax avoidance measure there's share options, company car and a whole host of ther stuff bought through their companies.

 

[Bob McC]

Hopefully that will all end once we start paying for the covid 19 action.

 

[cutting42]

Their salary might not reach those levels but that's usually a tax avoidance measure there's share options, company car and a whole host of ther stuff bought through their companies.

You are aware that all these things go via P11d and PAYE? I get some of these and I get the tax code to match.

 

[Tony L]

The Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, was on Sophie Ridge’s show earlier. Woefully out of his depth and apparently incapable of anything beyond burping up pre-programmed soundbites that didn’t even match the questions being asked. No way in hell is that worth £81k pa of anyone’s money, let alone state revenue.

 

[richardg]

Their salary might not reach those levels but that's usually a tax avoidance measure there's share options, company car and a whole host of ther stuff bought through their companies.

Someone will be along soon to re-present the figures.

In my opinion, MPs should be on about 45k. They seem to be average people. Nowt spectacular about them or what they do.

 

[TheDecameron]

I think stats have been presented to you before to prove that industry managers don't earn anything like what you say. I guess you didn't believe what was shown.

I’d be interested in seeing those. Got a link?

 

[richardg]

I’d be interested in seeing those. Got a link?

I'm hoping someone else will dig them up. But if they don't, I will. They are buried in a PFM thread from a few months ago. Exactly the same point made by the same person, followed by multiple member comments of rejection....IIRC

Much more important, Hugh, is the Guardian article on China government censoring scientific papers. Please go over to the Coronavirus thread and let me hear your thoughts.

 

[TheDecameron]

I'm hoping someone else will dig them up. But if they don't, I will. They are buried in a PFM thread from a few months ago. Exactly the same point made by the same person, followed by multiple member comments of rejection....IIRC

If you’re going to make casual assertions based on “I think I read it somewhere” then I’d prefer folk to show the source.