now that all questions about MPs expenses are being asked
Can anyone tell if councillors get paid a wage and what sort of expenses can they claim
Am interested to find out
I'm going away next week and i bet my line manager at the voluntary agency i work for wont authorise £200 expenses for 'avoidance of stress overload'. Lol
It is most important that there is an allowance and expenses facility in place for anyone serving as MP or councilor etc. It does give anyone of lesser means a chance to serve, otherwise only those from a wealthy background would be capable of doing so, which would take us back years in our representative system. However any abuse of that system should be met with the full force of the law, not only by the recipients of such allowances but also towards those who are in charge of handing them out.
I don't understand or believe how they were allowed to resign.
I don't think resignation will save them from any inquiry or prosecution.
As far as I am aware the Councillors receive sa sum of about £6000 per annum as a basic 'wage' They are allowed to claim for out of pocket expenses. Someone told me that they are also paid for various different pannels that they sit on in the Council although I dont know how true that is.
The leader would get about £12K plus expenses which are pensionable. A councillor's pension scheme was set up in about 2004 which is administered by the local authority pension fund along with the paid staff.
Expenses aren't astromical (typically less than £5k) and the local authority will usually provide them with a PC, PADSL, phone, blackberry (only for the special ones tho) and fax/printer etc.
I'd say what they get is fair for what they have to do and the shit they have to take. Many councils are different, but you'll typically find the information on google.
Councillors are voluntary positions, they are not allowed to be paid any sort of wage.
Instead of claiming expenses (including effectively attendance allowance) they went on to this scheme of getting an allowance which is £9171 (all figures for 2008-2009*), there are additional responsibility allowances for certain positions. 37 councillors had some form of responsibility allowance.
The Leaders allowance is £22,927*, in addition to the £9171*
Additionally they can claim for travel, subsidence and childcare.
The average councillor received £10997* total.
Only one councillor claimed for phone calls and very roughly half claimed for travel and/or mileage.
That's a lot of expenses considering they all got business' or other jobs.
I have no problem with their expenses. The 2 Councillors that I work with do a very difficult job in a very difficult area. I believe that they give value for money and play a very active roll in our area, I know that they have always been there for our Community whenever we have needed their help. I appreciate that they do a very demanding and difficult job.
Some do a good job, some don't. A mate's mum is a councillor. She's purely in it to progress her career and further her influence/contacts. It's like the Masons.
Yes, some councillors do have their heart in the right place whilst others don't. I think the allowance should at least be partly based on the number of attendances.
There are many volunteers in other fields who would like these sort of re-reimbursements and allowances.
