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Shamed MEPs to receive part of £20 million pay-off
Ben Bailey02.06.09
Three MEPs accused of abusing their expenses will be paid hundreds of thousands of pounds as part of a £20 million retirement package for British MEPs, it was reported today.
Under the payout, 22 British MEPs who are stepping down this week will each receive up to two years' salary and will share a £10 million index-linked pension pot, according to The Times.
The paper said 17 were also members of the European Parliament's controversial second pension scheme, which allows MEPs to have an additional pension pot of up to £209,000 for every five-year term. An 18th MEP who was a member of the scheme until 2007 will also receive a payout.
Den Dover, who was expelled from the Conservative Party after he claimed around £500,000 in "unjustified expenses", has an estimated pension of £235,000 and will receive a "transitional allowance" of £59,367.
The former Ukip MEP Ashley Mote, who was jailed for falsely claiming benefits of more than £65,000, has a pension worth £174,968 and will receive a transitional payment of £32,382, according to the paper.
As both men are in their 70s they can begin to draw their final-salary pensions immediately.
The former Ukip MEP Tom Wise, who was charged with fraud and false accounting in relation to his expenses, has a pension valued at £235,000 and will get a £32,382 transitional payment, according to reports.
Reader views (20)
Tim from London should check the state pension facts, which can be quite muddling. State pensions are paid out of the National Insurance Fund, not out of taxes, so taxpayers need not worry. There is a healthy surplus in the National Insurance Fund. It is the state pension which is frozen for retirees in Australia and several other countries. These retirees belong to the 50% of British state pensioners living abroad who have their pensions frozen. The other 50% of state pensioners, also living abroad, receive the same amount as their fellow pensioners "back home". WHY IS THERE THIS DISCRIMINATION? There is no logical answer given by MPs to this question, only excuses which make no sense. It is galling for frozen pensioners to watch MEPs and MPs looking after their own lavish pensions and failing to notice this discrimination against the people they are employed to care for.
- Dian Elvin, Witney, Oxfordshire, UK
It is not true that state pensions are paid from general taxation. Right from the start of the NI Scheme all contributory benefits are paid from the NIF.
Have a look at the Wikipedia articles on National Insurance. Originally the main article claimed that the NIF was not set aside for benefits, but the author accepted my contention that it is. See also the article on National Insurance Fund.
Maybe Tim is confusing state pensions with civil service pensions, which are paid from general taxation, and are by special provision immune from pension freezing if they retire to Australia etc.
- James Nelson, Leongatha South
Tim of London is wrong, wrong, wrong about state pensions being paid out of general taxation revenue. People qualify for the state pension by the number of contributory years into the National Insurance Fund (NIF). All NI contributions are accounted for in the NIF and all state pensions (and some other income related payments) come out of the NIF. The National Audit Office (www.nao.gov.uk) produces annual accounts for the NIF showing this. The Government Actuary Department (www.gad.gov.uk) prepares a report each year for parliament to advise on the affordability of paying the annual uprating. The NI Fund current has a surplus of over £50 billion in it. This money is invested with the government's Debt Management Office (www.dmo.gov.uk) and earns the NIF interest each month, which last year totalled over £1.3 billion. MPs and people like Tim may think they know about pensions and taxation but they should study the facts before going into print. It is just one misleading and incorrect view.
- Peter Morris, High Wycombe
Tim, I don't know where you got your misinformation from but the National Insurance Fund was set up so that contributions could be made to pay for the NHS, state pensions and social security payments. It is not allowed to be used for other purposes like government pensions and MP's expenses which come out of general taxation. Separate accounts are published annually showing that there is a 50 billion pound surplus in the N.I. Fund.
The DWP pays state pensions based on contribution records from the NI Fund and not from taxation. If you go to their website this will confirm that this is true. I'd be interested to know where your false information came from. Perhaps there is someone who can explain why 500,000 contributors living in frozen countries do not receive annual upratings as others do. This is clearly unfair and immoral. MP's fiddling expenses is also immoral. By the way part of the short payments made by the UK Govt for state pensions is subsidised by the Australian taxpayer. Why should they pay when it is the UK Government at fault?
- Richard Lane, Kariong, NSW, Australia
It's obscene that MEPS receive all this money,no one is worth the amount of money these people get.How can we respect any of them
- C J, stowmarket
It never ends does it?
- Nils Westesson, Lund, Sweden
They should be prosecuted and stripped of any retirement money from being an MEP. Time for change!
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London
What a cosy little club it is to be an MP or MEP when they can be rewarded by a very generous pension payout by stepping down from their lucrative position, a complete contrast to the shabby,unfair and discriminatory treatment given to half of the expatriate pensioners who's State Age Pension is not indexed despite the £52 billion surplus deposited by it's contributors into the National Insurance Fund.
- Jack Stoner, Christies Beach Australia
Where's Robin Hood when you need him?
- Marianne, SW France/London
Richard Lane mentions NI contributions and pensions - I don't know how long he's been in Oz for, but NI has had nothing to do with pasying for our pensions for quite a while now, it's just part of general taxation.
- Tim, London
The more I hear these stories, the more I feel deeply angry that these people, these MPs with the power to make decisions about ordinary people, have had the temerity to deny retirees their proper pensions for decades. If British workers have to retire in Australia, Canada, or South Africa, where they can be with their children their pensions are frozen and remain frozen until they move back to the UK, Europe, or die where they are. Contributors to the National Health Fund for a lifetime of hard work, and, despite letter after letter after letter asking for even-handed treatment, they have been denied their full pensions, purely and simply because they live in the "wrong" country. This blatant discrimination continues un-noticed and 50% of pensioners living abroad suffer deprivation while those MPs who could make laws to help them, spend the retirees' taxes on frippery, lies and luxuries. Shame!
- Dian Elvin, Witney, Oxfordshire, UK
ALL CROOKS TOGETHER......WESTMINSTER AND BRUSSELS.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe/Lancaster
"No forreigne prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence within this realm."
- English Bill of Rights 1689.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
The money pocketed by scheming MPs is peanuts compared with how much we're ripped off by the EU - something like £40 billion over a budgetary period.
That money could do wonders for our public services, not to mention saving jobs in British companies.
- Jools, London
THEY MPS AND MEPS ALL LEAVE WITH VAST PENSIONS PLUS SEVERANCE PAY FOR OUR MPS RUNNING INTO THOUSANDS OF POUNDS BUT BOTH IGNORE THEIR OWN OMBUDSMAN OR COURTS THAT SAY WE EQUITABLE LIFE PENSIONERS SHOULD RECEIVE COMPENSATION FOR THE FAILURE TO REGULATE.
THEIR ARE NONE THAT I WOULD VOTE FOR,
- Alan Green, Woodford Green
Haskey The sooner we get rid of this EU burden the better.
Could not agree more. Thought I was alone in this train of deliberation, glade to see others can see the saving and freedoms removing this ‘euro saddle’ will bring our nations, well England at least
- Ge, The free people of Kernow
We need to leave the EU and return to the concept of loose trading partners which is what it was sold to us as in the first place.
This will keep big business happy, after all they are the only beneficiaries of the EU white elephant (and the French of course). Then we can return to being in control of our own policies which are more pertinent to this society.
We have enough problems keeping tabs on our own bunch of elected benefit cheats, let alone having to deal with other European politicians where, believe me corruption is endemic.
Where is my vote on the EU Constitution? Socialism and democracy do not good bed fellows make.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
They should be stripped of this perk! They are going to be rewarded for being theives!!!
- Aria, South London
The sooner we get rid of this EU burden the better.
These MEPs work for an organisation which is so corrupt, its auditors have refused to sign off the books for many years. The tax payers still do't know where all the money goes. But because they are based in Brussels, they are untouchable.
What exactly is so special about these MEP layabouts that they get paid all these bonuses and pensions? And it all comes out our our taxes.
It's about time the Brussels gravy train was shunted into the sidings.
- Haskey, London SE1
It is digraceful that these people who are receiving generous unfunded pensions when there are 500,000 honest people who contributed to the National Insurance Fund but find that their UK state pensions are not uprated each 6 April. I am referring to the 3 or 4% of National Insurance Fund contributors who now live in countries such as Australia and Canada. People who live in the USA, Israel and the Philippines for instance do receive indexation. Surely common decency, morality and a sense of fairness (we are told by Mr Brown that fairness is in our DNA) dictate that National Insurance Fund contributors should take precedence over these people. After all they have paid into the NI Fund which is now 50 billion pounds in surplus, whereas the others have to be funded by today's taxpayers. If there are any honest politicians left, please include correcting this injustice in your manifesto.
- Richard Lane, Kariong, NSW, Australia
