MPs are allowed to claim for the cost of renting properties in London, or
their constituency, as well associated bills such as gas, electricity and
council tax.
They can also claim for hotel bills if they are forced to stay late on
parliamentary business.
The highest claim was that of Tory Nigel Adams, the Member of Parliament for
Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire. He asked the taxpayer for £25,309.28 – an
average of £486 per week.
His rent costs for a property in London is £1,993.33 a month.
Tory Nigel Adams, the Member of Parliament for
Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire
In comparison, the average cost of rent for people living in social housing
is around £300 a month.
But yet his government is happy for some of the most vulnerable people in the
country - the disabled, the mentally ill, the elderly - to have £14 a week, on
average, cut from their meagre housing benefit.
Close behind Mr Adams was Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, who claimed
£25,094.58 during the year from 2012/13.
Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk
The money went on rental costs of almost £2,000 a month as well as hotel
bills of up to £596 - all in the capital.
MPs are given a limit of £150 a night to stay in hotels.
The bedroom tax is a cut to housing benefit for 660,000 families in the UK
who have been classed as having a spare bedroom. Almost two-thirds of those
homes include somebody with a disability.
But the lack of smaller homes for people to move to means that many have no
choice but to stay where they are and accept the cut in payment.
Families who are classed as having one spare room lose 14% of their housing
benefit .
Those classed as having two spare rooms have their payments cut by 25%.
MP Stephen Barclay, who represents North
Cambridgeshire
Meanwhile the MPs that support the cut claim up to £480 a week in
accommodation expenses.
MP Stephen Barclay, who represents North Cambridgeshire, asked for
£24,226.09, despite living less than two hours from Westminster.
MP Richard Fuller, who represents Bedford and Kempston, claimed £18,384.68 –
despite his constituency being 40 minutes from central London.
One of his constituents said: "I’m disgusted to see the Tory MP for Bedford
has claimed almost £20k in accommodation expenses. Bedford is 40 minutes from St
Pancras on a fast train. Due to being on the same line as Luton airport, the
trains run all night, so I can’t see why he has any excuse at all to claim
accommodation."
Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce was among the highest claimants, claiming
£23,057.08
Malcolm Bruce, Liberal Democrat MP for Gordon
Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke, who once suggested that benefit claimants
should receive their payments on a plastic “scrounger card” to restrict where
the payments could be spent, claimed £19,682.41.
Conservative MP Esther McVey, who complained at the bedroom tax debate that
the debate was "too loud", claimed £20,000.
The accommodation expenses claimed by the MPs who voted to keep the damaging
tax could pay the bedroom tax for up to 230,000 victims for a year.
Shelter chief executive Campbell Rob said: “Shelter sees every day how the
Bedroom Tax is deeply damaging. With the shortage of social homes in the right
places, we know it will be very difficult for many families to downsize, and
none more so than the disabled and those with special needs.”
Raquel Rolnik, the UN’s special rapporteur on housing issues, insisted in
September that the bedroom tax was forcing people to go hungry and pushing
victims to the brink of suicide. Her findings were dismissed by the Conservative
Party.
Labour MP Rachel Reeves called it “a policy that inflicts hardship and
suffering on children in poverty and people with disabilities” and urged people
to “keep up the pressure on this Government to repeal it.”
Bedroom tax victim Charles Barden committed suicide in November over fears
that he would be asked to leave his home. The 74 year old hung himself after
telling friends that he was worried about how he would afford the bedroom tax.
He had secretly sold his car and taken a loan out for £1,000 to make ends
meet.
Mum of two Stephanie Bottrill waked out in front of a lorry on the M6 last
May, after being told to pay an extra £80 a month or leave her home.
Single mother Melissa Jones took sleeping pills after receiving a £600 bill –
despite begging her local authority for a smaller home.
Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson has a solution, telling the Derby
Telegraph last week that all 650 members of Parliament should be housed in
student style halls of residence to avoid any further scandals.
Speaking to the Derby Telegraph earlier this week, he said: “There is a bock
off flats opposite the House of Commons. I would have thought the more sensible
thing to do would be to purchase a block like that to house MPs.”
Conservative MP for Amber Valley, Nigel Mills, disagreed with the idea,
saying: “You don’t manage to get the majority of students living in halls. I
have no idea how much it would cost to build such a complex. We’re allowed to
claim up to £150 a night to stay in a hotel.” Mr Mills claimed £9456.60 last
year.
Mirror.co.uk contacted all named MPs for comment but nobody
responded.
