The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) formally recommended last year that the payments – worth up to £64,766 – should no longer be given to MPs who choose to stand down.
Only those who suddenly needed a job after losing their seat in an election should be eligible, it said, rather than those who knew long beforehand that they would be leaving Parliament.
Had it been implemented, the proposal could have saved the taxpayer millions of pounds at the next general election, when dozens of MPs are expected to stand down following the expenses scandal.
However, in an unusual move, the Speaker’s Committee – a group of MPs including Michael Martin, the Speaker; Harriet Harman, the leader of the House; and Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the House – rejected the recommendation.
Their decision was never publicised. It was finalised two months ago, after party leaders had been warned privately that many MPs would be embarrassed by the disclosure of their expenses’ claims.
Since The Daily Telegraph began its investigation into the expenses system, more than 15 MPs have announced that they will stand down at the next general election.
It has been predicted that many others will follow. However, to the anger of many of their constituents, all of them will be entitled to the “parachute” payment, or Resettlement Grant as it is officially called.
It is worth up to a year’s salary, depending on the MP’s length of service and age, and the first £30,000 of it is tax-free.
The rejection of the SSRB’s recommendation also means that even those MPs who have been suspended from their parties or forced to stand down over the scandal will receive the payments.
Among those who will be given the grant are Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Ben Chapman, all of whom made “phantom claims” for mortgage interest on home loans which did not exist.
They were subsequently banned from standing by the Labour Party.
However, in addition to the resettlement grant and their gold-plated final salary pension schemes, “retiring” MPs will receive other payments for up to a year before the next election.
They are entitled to a “winding up allowance” of as much as £42,068 for costs including paying off staff, many of whom are their spouses or relations.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron, the Labour and Conservative leaders, have already come under pressure from Nick Clegg, their Liberal Democrat counterpart, to scrap the parachute payments before the next election.
Mr Cameron has said that he will wait for independent recommendations, despite it now emerging that such proposals have alreadybeen made and privately rejected.
The SSRB, which publishes regular studies on Parliamentary pay, pensions and allowances and is made up of Whitehall officials, recommended an end to the payments last year.
In its January 2008 report, which was presented to Parliament, Sir John Baker, the head of the SSRB, said: “We consider the purpose of the grant is analogous to redundancy payments and we recommend that it should no longer be paid to MPs who retire or resign.”
However, minutes from a meeting held in the Speaker’s house in March 2008 and attended by the Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, the Lib Dem Nick Harvey and the Conservative David Maclean, noted that the group disagreed with the SSRB about the resettlement grant.
“The view was expressed that the SSRB had underestimated the uncertainty of parliamentary life and the impact on Members after normal retirement age,” the minutes stated.
By June 2008, the Speaker’s Committee had decided that if MPs could only get the resettlement grant by standing again, they might deliberately stand for unwinnable seats, which would be “difficult to manage”.
By April 2009, the committee had decided to reject the SSRB proposal. The new Green Book of Parliamentary rules stated that the payments would be made “for all Members who fail to be re-elected or who do not stand at a general election”.
The resettlement grant is also available to MPs who stand down during a parliament because of ill-health. These MPs have to write to the director of the fees office setting out their situation.
MPs including Ian McCartney, Elliot Morley and Margaret Moran (all Labour) have all mentioned health problems in their resignation statements. It is not known whether any MPs have contacted the fees office. At the 2005 election, 136 MPs left the Commons and got £5.3 million, an average of 64 per cent of their salary.
Only 49 would have received the resettlement grant under the proposals.
More than 15 MPs, including the Conservatives Douglas Hogg, Julie Kirkbride and Sir Peter Viggers, have now announced that they will stand down at the next election after The Daily Telegraph published details about their expenses.
Only those who suddenly needed a job after losing their seat in an election should be eligible, it said, rather than those who knew long beforehand that they would be leaving Parliament.
Had it been implemented, the proposal could have saved the taxpayer millions of pounds at the next general election, when dozens of MPs are expected to stand down following the expenses scandal.
However, in an unusual move, the Speaker’s Committee – a group of MPs including Michael Martin, the Speaker; Harriet Harman, the leader of the House; and Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the House – rejected the recommendation.
Their decision was never publicised. It was finalised two months ago, after party leaders had been warned privately that many MPs would be embarrassed by the disclosure of their expenses’ claims.
Since The Daily Telegraph began its investigation into the expenses system, more than 15 MPs have announced that they will stand down at the next general election.
It has been predicted that many others will follow. However, to the anger of many of their constituents, all of them will be entitled to the “parachute” payment, or Resettlement Grant as it is officially called.
It is worth up to a year’s salary, depending on the MP’s length of service and age, and the first £30,000 of it is tax-free.
The rejection of the SSRB’s recommendation also means that even those MPs who have been suspended from their parties or forced to stand down over the scandal will receive the payments.
Among those who will be given the grant are Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Ben Chapman, all of whom made “phantom claims” for mortgage interest on home loans which did not exist.
They were subsequently banned from standing by the Labour Party.
However, in addition to the resettlement grant and their gold-plated final salary pension schemes, “retiring” MPs will receive other payments for up to a year before the next election.
They are entitled to a “winding up allowance” of as much as £42,068 for costs including paying off staff, many of whom are their spouses or relations.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron, the Labour and Conservative leaders, have already come under pressure from Nick Clegg, their Liberal Democrat counterpart, to scrap the parachute payments before the next election.
Mr Cameron has said that he will wait for independent recommendations, despite it now emerging that such proposals have alreadybeen made and privately rejected.
The SSRB, which publishes regular studies on Parliamentary pay, pensions and allowances and is made up of Whitehall officials, recommended an end to the payments last year.
In its January 2008 report, which was presented to Parliament, Sir John Baker, the head of the SSRB, said: “We consider the purpose of the grant is analogous to redundancy payments and we recommend that it should no longer be paid to MPs who retire or resign.”
However, minutes from a meeting held in the Speaker’s house in March 2008 and attended by the Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, the Lib Dem Nick Harvey and the Conservative David Maclean, noted that the group disagreed with the SSRB about the resettlement grant.
“The view was expressed that the SSRB had underestimated the uncertainty of parliamentary life and the impact on Members after normal retirement age,” the minutes stated.
By June 2008, the Speaker’s Committee had decided that if MPs could only get the resettlement grant by standing again, they might deliberately stand for unwinnable seats, which would be “difficult to manage”.
By April 2009, the committee had decided to reject the SSRB proposal. The new Green Book of Parliamentary rules stated that the payments would be made “for all Members who fail to be re-elected or who do not stand at a general election”.
The resettlement grant is also available to MPs who stand down during a parliament because of ill-health. These MPs have to write to the director of the fees office setting out their situation.
MPs including Ian McCartney, Elliot Morley and Margaret Moran (all Labour) have all mentioned health problems in their resignation statements. It is not known whether any MPs have contacted the fees office. At the 2005 election, 136 MPs left the Commons and got £5.3 million, an average of 64 per cent of their salary.
Only 49 would have received the resettlement grant under the proposals.
More than 15 MPs, including the Conservatives Douglas Hogg, Julie Kirkbride and Sir Peter Viggers, have now announced that they will stand down at the next election after The Daily Telegraph published details about their expenses.
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