#mpmetrics

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We show you what  your MP - who lost their seat last Thursday - is about to receive

Using our unique MP database we've been able to build some initial analysis and a detailed table of the 94 MPs that lost their seats.

You can see the full examination here

Having inwardly digested the latest (7th) edition of the riveting 2015-16 Annual Review of the MPs’ Scheme of Expenses and Costs Publication we have been able to calculate the “resettlement” payment long serving MPs are entitled to (1 months basic pay for each completed year of service up to a maximum of 6 months). We include the 3months of  ministerial pay former MPs who were also ministers when they lost their seats are due to receive. 

Nothing is quite as straightforward as we would have liked - so several questions had to be addressed to the independent standard authority (IPSA) which overseas payouts to MPs when it came to who and how much some MPs are entitled to. 

Sinn Fein’s  Michelle Gildernew receives no salary (no Sinn Fein MP does) so we got IPSA to confirm that 6 months of £0 salary does mean she will  receive £0 in resettlement

George Galloway (Respect) who had accumulated well over 20years of MP service will have his resettlement payout reviewed according to IPSA as he was last elected only 3 years ago after a gap of 2 years- he received a payout when he lost his Bethnal Green and Bow seat in 2010

Mark Reckless may indeed live up to his name by standing down last year as Conservative Member for Rochester & Strood to seek re-election as a UKIP MP. He interrupted his 5 years service since his initial election in 2010 and thus IPSA will review his resettlement payment as he has not completed a complete year since his last election.

Vince Cable whilst able to receive his full MP resettlement payment, will due to his age (being over 65), not be able to receive the 3 months additional ministerial pay as Secretary of State for Business, unlike his 11 fellow Ministers who lost their seats will receive. 

As the office of an MP is essentially a small business, they can also claim against a special “Winding Up” budget. The maximum amount each MP can spend is £53,950 unless classed as one of the 97 London constituencies in which case there is an additional £3,200. This is used to close down their Westminster and constituency offices, pay their staff up till July (though any redundancy owed to MP staff comes from a separate uncapped IPSA budget)

To give some context we’ve also added what each MP has declared in financial interests since the last General election in 2010 - excluding donations to charity or to their party. As you will see some are far more likely to be keen to find new employment than others!

You can see our examination report here

[rateyourmp]

Whilst we work on updating our data - here are some less well known comparisons of the MPs we have lost and those we have gained......

[rateyourmp]

Welcome to the age of the £1million MP

Following on from our last blog on the rise and rise of MPs staff costs, we are estimating that the average final cost per MP for the 2010-2015 Parliamentary term will be in excess of £1.1million per MP - once winding up costs and severance pay is factored in.

We won’t have the final total until September 2015 (yes that's in 4months time !) as MPs that did not stand or failed to retain their seat in the election have 2 months after May 7th to empty their Westminster office, close down their constituency office,  make their staff redundant and file those last business costs and expenses.

Whilst there have been plenty of headlines and twitterstorms over MPs claims over personal expenses, be it poppy wreaths or rent on second homes, we have not seen any major increase in the total for these categories since 2010. 

The most significant spend is MPs staff - these are the caseworkers and office managers that an MP can employ to help them. We would expect MPs who do employ a number of experienced staff to be very responsive to their constituents in terms of surgeries, email and letter replies and helping their boss (the MP) to manage their time effectively. We hope to give indications of this in the future.

[rateyourmp]

IPSA Announces changes to MP Business Costs & Expenses Scheme for 2015-16

On the day the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority publishes its scheme for the new financial year RateYourMP.com takes a look at whats been paid out over the past 4.5 years and speculates at how much the final 2010-15 bill will come to - we are estimating the last 6months for now as these wont be published until well after the election and will include MP winding up costs and Resettlement payments (more analysis on these to come later!)

Whilst plenty of focus has been levied at MP’s accommodation, travel and miscellaneous claims from inappropriate hotel bills to poppy wreaths, we can see that those areas are both small and relatively flat over the last 5 years - From our breakdown of costs shown above is obvious that the key driver is Staff costs which - excluding 2010 which does not show a full financial year - has increased +10% year on year. 

Some of those MPs that have claimed the most on Staffing costs (available data is up to Nov 31 2014) are David Lammy,  Barry Gardiner, Chuka Umunna,  Tessa Jowell & Glenda Jackson

For context the average Staffing costs claim across all MPs is currently  £427,354 and Philip Hollobone - former MP for Kettering - has yet to claim any staffing costs at all.

To clarify Staffing Expenditure may be used to meet the following costs: 

staff salaries, employers' contributions to National Insurance and employers' contributions to pension schemes; 

payments to pooled staffing resources; 

payments for bought-in services; 

overtime payments, to the extent that these are specified in staff terms and conditions; 

payments for childcare vouchers for staff or other payments by way of salary sacrifice schemes; 

modest reward and recognition payments (but these may not be claimed in respect of any connected parties); 

one-off health and welfare costs associated with provision of staffing support, such as eyesight tests and occupational health assessments; 

costs associated with apprenticeships that meet the standards of the National Apprenticeship Service;

the incidental expenses of volunteers 

where the MP expects the Office Costs Expenditure budget to be exhausted, employment practice liability insurance and staff training costs. 

In 2015-16 IPSA has announced the Staffing Expenditure budget has been increased by 1% to £147,000 for London Area MPs and £140,000 for non-London Area MPs, to reflect the wider public sector pay policy. 

[rateyourmp]

People talking about us

Will experience as an MP be an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to the election trail?

BBC Election 2015 - 11th April 2015

Michael Ellis - Former MP for Northampton - "At a time when people are very sceptical about politicians generally I think it is quite useful for the electorate to be able to look back at their performance," -  He points to his record on the Rate Your MP website, where he is ranked fourth in terms of frequency of voting and 13th "most value for money" MP.

Wycombe man invites public to 'Rate Your MP' with new website

Bucks Free Press - 13th March 2015

... It's very difficult to do a complete 'apples for apples' comparison for every MP, but that is not to say you can't have a go.....Anything that aids scrutiny and transparancy should be seen as a good thing.....

Stephen Mosley - Former MP for The City of Chester

ChesterMP.com - 11th March 2015

“The challenge for Government and all political parties lies in breaking through that disconnect and getting more people involved in the political process. RateYourMP is a great idea and provides an innovative new way for voters to keep track of their elected representatives and could go a long way to bridging the gap and achieving just that.”

New RateYourMP website reveals £3.6m cost of Tories Mark Prisk, Sir Oliver Heald, Sir Alan Haselhurst and Robert Halfon

Herts & Essex Observer - 2nd March 2015

Sir Oliver Heald said of the website and similar online resources: "They give some insights, but I think voters have a pretty good idea anyway of whether or not they have a hard working and effective MP."

[rateyourmp]

Zero hours all right for some

While the debate rages among the party leaders and candidates about zero-hour contracts, a surprising 86 of their former colleagues are earning almost £265 a day for officially working zero hours.

The figure has been highlighted by Peter Williams, the co-founder of a new web site Rate Your MP that is benchmarking and costing MP performance.  Williams points out that last Monday, the House of Commons official Twitter feed proclaimed - 'Parliament has dissolved. There are no MPs until after the general election on May 7’ - yet all the ex-MPs continue to be paid, even those standing down and not seeking re-election.

“There are 564 former members standing again for Parliament,” he says, “but they are now officially simply candidates – they can no longer describe themselves as Members of Parliament.  They will however, continue to receive their salary right through to polling day and even at just the basic MP salary the amount being paid to those candidates is close to £4.2million."  

But it is not those members standing again that first caught Williams’ attention, it was those standing down.

“I do think it’s surprising that the 86 members of Parliament not seeking re-election - effectively retiring from the House - will also continue to be paid right through to May 7 despite the fact that Parliament is closed and they can no longer fully represent their constituents.”   He calculates that these particularly retirees or job-seekers will earn around £265 per day and collectively cost the taxpayer almost £650,000 during the campaign.

MPs standing down can also claim expenses until July to meet the costs of “closing down their office” - despite the fact that in many cases they have known for months that they would not be seeking re-election. Those costs will not be publicly available until September.

The former MPs job seeker allowance of close to £265 per day compares to actual maximum job seeker allowance of £72.40 per week.  At £1,320.08 per week the MP allowance is a little more than 18 times higher.  Among the more prominent members standing down are former ministers such as William Hague, Jack Straw, Francis Maude, David Blunkett, Menzies Campbell, Tessa Jowell, Malcolm Rifkind and former PM Gordon Brown.

[rateyourmp]

MPs claim £180,480.23 worth of congestion charges & tolls 

According to our latest analysis of the outgoing Parliament’s expense data, this is the amount paid out to MPs & family dependants for London Congestion charge, motorway & bridge tolls on journeys to and from Westminster in the past four and a half years [MP expense data is only available up till November of last year - we wont have the full 5 year picture for you until September as MPs, even those who are not returned or standing again can claim costs & expenses up till July]. 

Granted, they have had to pay back a total of £1,413.80 of that due mainly to insufficient evidence or duplicate claims but that still leaves a hefty £179,066.43.This doesn't include congestion charges and tolls paid our to MP staff which would add another £7,600 to the bill.

Top of the payouts has been to MPs all of whom are standing for re-election on May 7th.  Margaret Beckett, MP for Derby South who has received almost £6,400 has a journey from her constituency office to Westminster of approximately 129 miles. All her claims were for the London congestion charge. She ranks 319th in terms of cost per vote.   

Next is David Wright who is ranked 89th out of 650 currently on our MPIndex who has received almost £4,500 since 2010 in Congestion zone and toll reimbursement. Though some of his claims have been grouped confusingly with Utility bills. 

Mark Tami, the  MP for Alyn & Deeside in Wales, some 200 miles from Westminister is 3rd having received almost £4,400 for congestion zone and M6 toll claims.

Its not only MPs living hundreds of miles away who have received significant payments. One MP, whose constituency in Lambeth is less that 7miles from the House of Commons has clocked up almost £1,000 worth of London congestion zone charge payments. This is in addition to receiving the London living allowance of £3,760 per year intended to contribute towards the additional expenses of living in the London Area or of commuting regularly to the London Area.

It should be noted that some MPs who have hybrid cars or have a disabled blue badge are exempt from the congestion zone charge.