11.07.13
Ipsa proposes £6,000 pay rise for MPs
MPs should be granted a pay rise of £6,000, with basic remuneration up 9.3% to £74,000, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has announced.
The proposals will be offset with reduced expenses.
Backbench MPs are currently paid £66,000, but party leaders David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have all urged restraint on pay rises. The changes will come into effect after the general election in 2015.
If a £6,000 pay rise is implemented, wages would rise annually in line with average UK earnings after that year.
But the MPs’ pension scheme would be switched from a final salary to career average system, expenses for dinner would be scrapped and there could be tighter restrictions on using taxis and on claiming running costs for second homes.
Resettlements will not be brought back, and defeated MPs could be offered redundancy packages more similar to other public sector organisations.
The proposals will go out to consultation before being finalised in the autumn.
Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said: “The history of MPs' pay and pensions is a catalogue of fixes, fudges and failures to act. The package we put forward today represents the end of the era of MPs' remuneration being settled by MPs themselves.
“For the first time, an independent body will decide what MPs should receive. We will do so in full view, and after consultation with the public.”
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We continue to oppose public sector pay cuts so public servants will be rightly outraged if MPs, almost all of whom support the Government's pay freeze and cap, accept a hypocritical double-digit percentage increase.
“The law has been changed in recent years to cut pensions and civil service redundancy payments to pave the way for massive job cuts, so people will reject any attempt by MPs to claim they are powerless. If these pay rises went through it would simply fuel public anger and resentment at the cosy clique operating at the heart of Westminster.
“There seems to be a myth across the public and private sectors that low paid people are encouraged to work harder by cutting their pay, but the already handsomely paid should be incentivised with ever higher salaries.”
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