Saturday, October 10, 2020
MPs pay rise not a good look as others face cut in income
All the noise in politics at the moment, that has nothing to do with Covid 19 and Brexit, is about the decision by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to award MPs a £3,360 pay increase next April on top of their £80,000 a year salary.
This is not a decision that MPs have any control over but once again IPSA has shown itself to be insensitive and flat-footed, to the extent that Business minister Nadhim Zahawi has gone public to describe the move as “inappropriate” as the country continues to battle the global pandemic, businesses are struggling to survive and people are seeing their wages cut.
What does lie within the government's control however, is how they treat the many hundreds of thousands of people struggling to make ends meet on benefits, whose number may well increase over the next few months as measures are put into place to try and control the pandemic.
As the Independent reports, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has claimed that four million households face a "significant decline" in their income under government plans to scrap the £20 a week increase in universal credit.
With unemployment already rising and forecast to spike over the winter, many more households are expected to be reliant on the benefit system, one of the least generous of a wealthy nation.
As Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for work and pensions, says, the government would be guilty of "heartlessness at its worst" if it cuts benefits while millions of people are struggling.
Ministers may not be able to control what IPSA does but they should certainly avoid further embarrassment and take a socially just position, by ensuring that those most in need do not lose out while they rake in their extra salaries.
This is not a decision that MPs have any control over but once again IPSA has shown itself to be insensitive and flat-footed, to the extent that Business minister Nadhim Zahawi has gone public to describe the move as “inappropriate” as the country continues to battle the global pandemic, businesses are struggling to survive and people are seeing their wages cut.
What does lie within the government's control however, is how they treat the many hundreds of thousands of people struggling to make ends meet on benefits, whose number may well increase over the next few months as measures are put into place to try and control the pandemic.
As the Independent reports, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has claimed that four million households face a "significant decline" in their income under government plans to scrap the £20 a week increase in universal credit.
With unemployment already rising and forecast to spike over the winter, many more households are expected to be reliant on the benefit system, one of the least generous of a wealthy nation.
As Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for work and pensions, says, the government would be guilty of "heartlessness at its worst" if it cuts benefits while millions of people are struggling.
Ministers may not be able to control what IPSA does but they should certainly avoid further embarrassment and take a socially just position, by ensuring that those most in need do not lose out while they rake in their extra salaries.
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WHO IS ON THIS IPSA PANEL? wHAT SORT OF BACKROUNDS HAVE THEY, TO BE ,WHAT I WOULD SAY,NOT IN TOUCH WITH WHAT IS GOING ON ABOUT THEM?
Nigel asks who is on this IPSA panel. Well it's pretty evident that they all come from the same bubble, the cluster of entitled "we know best" groupthinkers who consider themselves above, way above, the common herd. Sensitivity doesn't come into it, as the only thing they are sensitive about is what other fat cats are "earning". Of course there are other mutually beneficial fat cat daisy chains, such as the major corporations and banksters, who make these deviants look small beer,but the mindset is the same - rules and constraints apply to others.
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