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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (57545)	8/2/2004 5:25:47 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793799

How to Maximise Your Expenses: Advice to new Members of the European Parliament The Social Affairs Unit is publishing on Monday a helpful guide for those Members newly elected to the European Parliament on June 10th - How to Maximise Your Expenses: Advice to New Members of the European Parliament. The guide records the four tax-free streams of income available to MEPs as 'expenses' in addition to their salaries – in the UK case – of £56,000. Firstly there is the travel allowance. Unlike what one might expect, this does not actually reimburse MEPs for the cost of their travel. MEPs merely have to hand in their boarding passes and a sum is paid according to kilometerage. In nearly all cases this amount is in excess of a full Business Class fare. Then there is the attendance allowance of €262 (£180), widely known as the 'sign-on and sod-off' fee. In order to claim this it is merely necessary to sign on before 10am on any or all of the 155 days on which the European Parliament sits; there is no need to speak in a debate or even to stay. An MEP who signs on for every day Parliament is sitting will earn an extra €40,610 (£27,900) per year. Thanks to the staff allowance, of £8,500 per month at current rates of exchange, an MEP can put his or her family on the payroll – around 70% of MEPs follow this advice. It is entirely up to the individual member how these choose to spend their staff allowance; no receipts are necessary and there is no audit. Finally there is the general expenses allowance. This is meant to cover office expenses and the like. It amounts to £2,540 a month and again is not subject to audit. MEPs may, if they wish, have this paid directly into their bank account. Such a generous interpretation of 'expenses' may go somewhere towards explaining why it costs over a million pounds to send an MEP to Brussels – more than two and a half times the cost of sending a British MP to Westminster. socialaffairsunit.org.uk