The 218 MPs who were either defeated or stepped down at the general election were entitled to payouts totalling £10.4m, the BBC has learned. The figures shown to the BBC by the TaxPayers' Alliance reveal the amount in resettlement grants available in addition to pension and other payments.
It is not known how much of the money has been accepted, but the alliance described the figures as "huge sums". The grants, nicknamed "golden goodbyes", are paid in addition to any parliamentary pension an MP receives or the winding up payments given to MPs to pay off their staff or the rental on their constituency offices. The payments are tax free for the first £30,000.
The figures from the TaxPayers' Alliance, a group that campaigns for lower taxes, do not reveal if the former MPs took their entitlements. Long-serving MPs who are still of working age can receive the equivalent of a year's salary, £64,766, but the payments are reduced when an MP reaches the age of 70. TaxPayers' Alliance analyst John O'Connell, who compiled the figures, argued that MPs were mistaken if they considered the grants to be similar to redundancy payments. "It is not redundancy pay, they take the job on a five-year fixed contract and need to be aware it is fixed term," he told File on 4. Adding that MPs who retire voluntarily also receive the payment, he said: "They get it if they stand down which negates the redundancy argument." A parliamentary watchdog said it planned to look at future payments.
DID YOU KNOW that former Prime Ministers are allowed £109,000 a year for the rest of their life? Plus a car and driver for life, if I remember rightly.
