If you want to get an MP going, just ask them what they think of IPSA — the new
expenses watchdog. The body is hated: when Cameron joked at PMQs this week that it should be relocated to Croydon there was laughter across the House.
IPSA is regarded as rude and inefficient. When Tory MPs were in a particularly grumpy mood before Christmas, David Cameron went to the ’22 and promised that IPSA would either have to mend its ways or be mended.
Today’s revisions to the rules by IPSA (£) will go some way to addressing the concerns of MPs. The old rules only allowed children to be treated as dependants until the age of 5. Now, they can be treated as such until 18. MPs will also be able to use parliamentary credit cards for more bills, meaning that they won’t be out of pocket while they wait for repayment.
The abuses under the old system mean that MPs aren’t going to get a sympathetic, or even rational, hearing on their expenses for at least a generation. But the initial IPSA rules were too hostile to family life. The revisions to that are to be welcomed. We also need to become better at distinguishing between bad and good expenses.
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