Finding it hard to make ends meet

Aren't you on the wrong Tory bashing thread?

I'm not bashing him as a Tory. I'm bashing him as someone who believes he's struggling to survive on £90K a year.

To be fair, we don't know what commitments this man has, teenagers at school to be paid for, elderly parents in nursing homes also to be paid for, or a previous wife and family to support.
if he is saying he has to exist by eating beans on toast everyday that is a different matter.

Also, there will be a lot of tax to be paid out of that salary.

I can't work out if you're joking or you really don't think that £90K a year isn't a decent income and that it's insensitive of him to complain when most people in this country have to manage on far less and won't be in line for a 10% payrise.

We have never had or aspired to such riches, but did not go short. I'd like to see him try and manage on our annual income, which is less than a quarter of his. We want for nothing.

Oh, 90K is a lot all right, although after tax it won't be anything like that.
All wealth ( or lack of it) is relative.
MP's are not in politics ' for the money' if they wanted a huge salary they would go into business.I think they should only accept half of the proposed pay rise, but some will accept it all, some will not,but not all MP's are very wealthy and it will be those people who accept the pay rise.MP's from all the political parties will no doubt accept the rise in the end.

I think my point is.... That we don't know what financial commitments this man has to pay out for, and also saying that ' a lot of people have to manage on far less ' while a true comment, has nothing to do with the salary of an MP. we know that cleaners/ delivery men etc have less, but some people also earn more than an MP as well.does everyone who earns a massive salary not deserve it?if we are not careful, it just becomes the rhetoric of envy.

However, what we do know, is that public sector workers are being limited to a 1% pay rise. MPs are just as much public sector workers yet their pay rise is 10%. It doesn't seem fair to me.

absent totally agree!!!!!!!

Indeed absent - and I think there is some suggestion that after this rise they will be treated as public sector workers.

None of the MPs have any option about accepting the rise - it is going to be paid to them.
Some have already said that they will be donating the extra pay to charity and / or community enterprise in their constituencies.

Lots of people have responsibilities such as you mention, rosesarered, but they are not all receiving high salaries or 10% raises, such as MPs are. They are getting no sympathy at all from the government.

( Aren't you on the wrong Tory bashing thread? - vq started this thread, how could she be on the wrong one?)

I don't think the politics of envy comes into this. The man, whatever his commitments, even after deductions is earning a substantial amount. In this time of austerity is it appropriate, particularly as he's an MP, for him to be complaining he can't make ends meet when his income is far in excess of that of most people?

Don't forget he also gets expenses:

Alongside his salary, he claimed expenses last year totalling £55,828.96, including £27,192 in rent which is believed to be for his London flat, £148.80 in taxis and £83.55 for coffees and teas

Why does he travel in taxis? Can't he get the bus or tube? £83.55 for coffees and teas? In all my jobs I've had to pay for my own coffee and tea so why are we paying for his?

He needs to spend time in the real world thenb will he still say he can't manage on £90K.

I think it has become the fashion to slag off all MP's regardless .They should have had a pay rise before now, but have been reluctant to accept it.on another thread, somebody points out that we don't want only the inherited wealthy being an MP.Paying them a good salary ( but far less than they could earn in business btw) goes a long way to addressing this.If we want quality people for all the political parties, this fact needs to be accepted.

Further down in the article it says he also has 50K+ expenses - some of which is rent on his London flat but some travel and also money for -tea and coffee! His wife is a solicitor so will be well paid. He is talking about petrol and train money for himself and his wife. He lives in a £700K converted barn - people on here are talking of downsizing!!

Agree, Bez. I was listening to the local radio this morning, about churches having to set up soup kitchens, etc., over the summer holidays, as there are so many families who rely on breakfast clubs and school meals who will not be able to feed their kids over the summer holidays. We have the biggest food bank in the country in the North East.
Then I read about an MP who says he is struggling and I feel sick.

Apparently a family of three,one working adult,a teenager in full time education,and a soon to be pensioner are able to live,buy food petrol,bus fares and working travel expenses a £112.00 pw is sufficient to live on...

Every time someone mentions that someone else is privileged or paid more than sufficiently etc another person chips in with the old cliché "the politics of envy" What a ridiculous suggestion. Absolutely nothing to do with envy and everything to do with fairness. I think that phrase was invented by the privileged to detract from the truth.

Anyone else watching the Welfare reform and Work Bill on 131 now?

Why are they debating it today?

All these people wanting a pay rise that's a third of what they expect whole families to live on.

Whitewave, you may wish for a Communist society ( didn't work well for Russia, think 1984) but most of us in the country do not, and that is the only way you will get even nominal ' fairness' or equality in salaries.We live in a Capitalist society,and some people will of course earn more than others, some a great deal more, think footballers for example.

rose what are you talking about Get a grip!!!

My grip was on you!

No such thing as fairness about salaries and pay rises.