Councillors expenses

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Neil

My questions would be.

Are other Councils the same or is this a new idea by the independant body?

Who are this independant body anyway that decided 16 years olds need looking after?

What was the previous age limit?

What happens if a Councillor is the sole career for someone who can't be left alone, can they claim for assistance while on Council duties?

I can start to answer my own questions now about the current rules

A child under the age of 15
An elderly relative requiring full time care
A relative with a physical disability requiring full time care
A relative with learning disabilities requiring full time care

There are conditions about the person requiring care has to live with the Councillor and the carer can not be a member of the Councillors family or household and the identity of the carer must be told to the Council.

The rate of the carers allowance is current £9 per hour

[Neil]

I don't agree with this, its worse that the 16 year old being cared for I think.
I think its ok to quote it directly as its a public document.

Councillors wishing to claim travel allowance in respect of journeys from their homes to the Council
Offices should inform the Members’ Allowances Scheme Administrator of the distance there and
back in miles by the shortest reasonable route. A form will be provided for this purpose and the
information provided will be used when verifying travel allowance claims.

I would be interested to know how many Councillor's claim travel allowance from home to the Council.

We are talking about Local Council here so I would not expect any Local Councillors to live that far away.

[Neil]

I can't see anything about receipts in any of the document so far.
There are some other things about it I don't like as well.

[Ken Moss]

I wonder if the chair of the Licensing Committee claimed his allowance for the three years when there was no meeting?

Licensing Committee

That'd work out at around £4,500 for nothing.

[garinda]

My criticism hasn't any politically based bias.

I just think it's wrong.

Also, unlike others I never posted about seventeen year olds being claimed for, as it's payable up to that age. Though presumably some councillors will now claim for their children, right up until that child reaches their seventeenth birthday.

An age when many other people will be out working, paying tax etc.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I wonder if the chair of the Licensing Committee claimed his allowance for the three years when there was no meeting?

Licensing Committee

That'd work out at around £4,500 for nothing.

When does this transparency start, fanfared in by the coalition, which will force councils to publish all their spending, including allowances, on their websites?

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by garinda

My criticism hasn't any politically based bias.

I just think it's wrong.

Also, unlike others I never posted about seventeen year olds being claimed for, as it's payable up to that age. Though presumably some councillors will now claim for their children, right up until that child reaches their seventeenth birthday.

An age when many other people will be out working, paying tax etc.

It must be hard looking after a hungry teenager when you're living in abject poverty on expenses of say, oh I don't know, £31k per year plus County Council expenses.

I'm grateful that I'm not a parent of a child in their mid-teens. With all these cuts that are going on I'd be worried about running out of money to pay for the cotton wool.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by garinda

When does this transparency start, fanfared in by the coalition, which will force councils to publish all their spending, including allowances, on their websites?

I understand that Hyndburn is lagging behind a lot of other councils in that respect and it doesn't surprise me at all. If you're claiming anything from the public purse then you should be forced to declare it.

For the record, I get about £300 per month which includes and IT allowance to cover anything I might need at home. By claiming that I forfeit my right to have a free council laptop or a council internet connection installed at home. I probably spend an average of between 2-3 hours every day on council business and consider the basic allowance to be satisfactory for the hours I put in.

I personally think that chairs of committees are overpaid for what is actually required and that there are too many of them. Certain colleagues of mine have forgone their chairmanship allowance and instead put it into their own ward fund.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Certain colleagues of mine have forgone their chairmanship allowance and instead put it into their own ward fund.

I would be interested to know how that works as it does not mention it in the Constitution.

It does say this though

6.1 A Councillor may elect to forego his/her entitlement to an allowance or to receive a reduced
allowance by completing an “Application to forego Allowances” and submitting it to the
Members’ Allowances Scheme Administrator.

It also does not mention an IT allowance that I can see so far. Maybe its in another bit I have yet to read.

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by Neil

I would be interested to know how many Councillor's claim travel allowance from home to the Council.

We are talking about Local Council here so I would not expect any Local Councillors to live that far away.

Neil I don't claim any travel allowance from home to Council and I am pretty certain that no other Labour councillor does either, but I will check with the rest of the Labour Group and get back to you.

Incidentally the law regarding eligibility to be a district councillor states that you must either live or work in the local authority in which you are a councillor.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by claytonender

Neil I don't claim any travel allowance from home to Council and I am pretty certain that no other Labour councillor does either, but I will check with the rest of the Labour Group and get back to you.

I did you expect you would but I wonder if anyone does

Originally Posted by claytonender

Incidentally the law regarding eligibility to be a district councillor states that you must either live or work in the local authority in which you are a councillor.

I did not know that, thank you.
Do we have any Councillors who only work in Hyndburn but dont live here that you know of?

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I wonder if the chair of the Licensing Committee claimed his allowance for the three years when there was no meeting?

Licensing Committee

That'd work out at around £4,500 for nothing.

I don't know about that, but I find this more than outrageous.

The employment committee never met between April 2005 and May 2010, but a Tory councillor claimed an allowance every year for chairing the committee. This amounted to £2765.51.

Also the Judical Committee (External Funding) never met in 2008-2009, and 2010-2011, but the chair claimed an allowance both years of £1432.78 in 2008-2009 and £1484.00

I'm not suggesting any actual rules were broken, but the fact this is possible is very wrong.

If this abuse of allowances was going on in a private company, the boss would be threatening those doing it with the police, and charges of fraud.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by garinda

I'm not suggesting any actual rules were broken, but the fact this is possible is very wrong.

The allowance is for being chair not chairing any meetings. I agree it does not sound right.
Maybe as common plebs we are mis understanding something and the committee chairs still have a lot of extra work to do even if the committees don't actually have meetings.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by Neil

The allowance is for being chair not chairing any meetings. I agree it does not sound right.
Maybe as common plebs we are mis understanding something and the committee chairs still have a lot of extra work to do even if the committees don't actually have meetings.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Neil

The allowance is for being chair not chairing any meetings. I agree it does not sound right.
Maybe as common plebs we are mis understanding something and the committee chairs still have a lot of extra work to do even if the committees don't actually have meetings.

Having the title of Chairman/woman, and claiming expenses when there have been no actual meeting to chair, is morally wrong. Even if it isn't breaking the Council's own self-regulated rules.