MPs are to receive a pay rise of 3.1% bringing their annual basic salary to £81,932 from April this year, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has announced.
Ipsa said on Thursday the increase from the current wage of £79,468 will kick in from April 1, 2020.
The body that sets MPs pay has also proposed an increase in budgets for MPs’ staff, support for their welfare, and for security.
MPs’ pay is linked to average rises in the public sector, as determined by the Office for National Statistics.Make sense of politics. Sign up to the Waugh Zone and get the political day in a nutshell.
Richard Lloyd, Ipsa’s interim chair, said his review of staffing budgets in 2019 found demands on MPs’ offices were high, “with staff doing difficult and stressful casework with constituents on a very wide range of problems”.
“There was often high staff turnover, with salary levels below comparable roles elsewhere, based on independent benchmarked evidence,” he said.
“In many MPs’ offices, relatively little time or money was spent on staff training, well-being and development.”
“As a result, we have provided additional funding in MPs’ 2020-21 staffing budgets for staff training and welfare, security, and changes to the salary bands and job descriptions for MPs’ staff to bring them into line with the jobs they actually do.
“This action demonstrates Ipsa’s ongoing commitment to supporting MPs and their staff to serve their constituents, and we will review this over the next year, in line with our assurance work.”
Following reforms to the way MPs’ pay is calculated, the rise is automatic and not subject to a vote in the Commons.
In February members of the House of Lords were given tax-free pay rise that means they will earn £323 a day.
The hike will give peers a tax-free income of more than £48,000 if they attend all 150 days the Lords typically sits in a year.
Boris Johnson said the pay rise for peers was “odd”, but was up to the Lords to decide.Related...
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