TAXPAYERS will have to meet the cost of MPs' childcare costs under plans to make the House of Parliament's expenses system even more generous.
MPs with children are expected to be handed vouchers which they will then be able to cash in at nurseries across the country. Parliamentarians will be able to claim as much as £2,000 a year under the plan, greatly easing their costs.
Such nursery
rebates are rarely made available to workers. One survey recently found that just 2.5% of companies offered such perks to their employees.
It is currently only offered to members of staff employed by MPs who work at the Houses of Parliament.
However, it is understood that at a meeting of parliamentary officials last week, it was agreed to extend the plan to MPs as well.
Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It defies belief that they think they can get away with increasing their perks. There is still anger around the country at the Westminster expenses culture."
The move is being planned as part of changes to the controversial system of expenses offered to MPs, and follows revelations that hundreds of MPs are employing their own family members as staff.
It comes as MSPs at Holyrood are also expecting a major increase in the expenses they use to pay their own members of staff.
All 129 MSPs are to receive an increase in the fund from £46,567 to around £55,000 a year, which they can then use to meet the salaries of their staff. The boost follows complaints that they were being forced to pay their staff rock-bottom wages.
But the move will put an extra £1m on the annual bill that taxpayers are meeting for their MSPs – who spend about £7m to pay their staff.
The planned changes differ from proposals put forward by Sir Alan Langlands, who recently carried out an investigation into MSPs' expenses.
He concluded that only constituency MSPs should get an increase in the funds they can use to pay staff.
He said funding for parliament's other 59 'list' MSPs – who do not have a constituency – should be reduced.
But after complaints from list MSPs, mostly Tories, LibDems and SNP members, that has now been changed.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: "They've arrived at a simple fix which is not evidence based."
The full article contains 399 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
