This story was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
   License: Creative Commons - Attributions/No Derivities[1]
   --------------------------------------------------------------


As UK MPs hide extra income, people on state support must declare every penny
By:   []
Date: None

A new investigation by openDemocracy reveals today that over the pandemic year, British MPs’ side hustles netted them a total of nearly £5m, on top of their annual £82,000 salaries.

But the figures we analysed significantly understate the wealth pouring into MPs’ coffers. The rules on declaring financial interests give our representatives a lot of privacy – contrasting sharply with the level of financial information you or I would have had to provide in order to access financial support this past year.

MPs’ interests are still too secret...

The 116 MPs with significant landlord income do have to declare how many properties they rent out – something both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson were notoriously rather slow to do – but not how much their property portfolio is worth. Nor, in any detail, do they have to tell us how much they receive in rent – just whether it totals more than £10,000 a year.

Given that average London rents are nearly twice that sum; that a significant number of MPs are renting out London homes (including those bought with taxpayer money under the old expenses system); and that and around half of Conservative MP landlords rent out more than one property, many MPs’ rental incomes are likely to be substantially higher than parliament’s Register of Interests reveals. But how much higher, we’re not to be told.

MPs also don’t have to declare the value of any other savings or shares or property they hold, unless they have a particular shareholding worth more than £70,000 or more than 15% of a company’s stock. And even then, as with rental income, it’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer – they don’t have to tell us how much more.

Nor do they have to tell us what level of dividend payments they receive from any of their shareholdings.

And they certainly don’t have to tell us anything about their spouse’s income or financial holdings.

..while claimants must declare everything

Contrast this with the situation you or I might have found ourselves in over the past year. If we had lost some or all of our income due to the pandemic, and had needed to ask the state for support, we would have discovered very little room for privacy.

If we have to claim Universal Credit, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wants to know about every last penny we earn. It also insists on knowing the exact value of any savings we might have, the value of any property we rent out, and any shareholdings. Not just ours – but our partners or spouses’, too.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/mps-hide-extra-income-people-benefits-must-declare-every-penny/