DWP ministers hypocrisy over expenses claims

Admittedly, I now know more about the Los Angeles Department for Water and Power than I really need, but occasionally my google-powered service throws up a wonderful pair of juxtaposed stories.

On Thursday 21 May, these two stories appeared in my in-box:
● "DWP minister Purnell in CGT avoidance scandal
The Work and Pensions secretary, James Purnell, avoided paying capital gains tax (CGT) on the sale of his second home, it has been revealed. James Purnell also used £395 of taxpayers' money to pay for the accountant who gave him the advice on avoiding the tax. Purnell avoided paying CGT on his London flat by listing it as his primary residence with tax authorities, while informing the Parliament fees office that his Manchester home was his primary residence."
● "Single mother pleads guilty to benefit fraud
Single mother-of-three Anne Maughan received a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to benefit fraud. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that Maughan, who has no previous convictions, failed to tell the DWP she had capital in excess of the prescribed limits. Richard Littler, defending, said: "This is not the normal benefit fraud case. She was always entitled to income support. She did not disclose monies in her account that belonged to someone else. Those monies were always to be repaid to that individual. The only benefit she would gain would be the interest on that cash." Judge Granville Styler accepted it was not the normal type of benefit fraud. He handed Maughan a five-month prison term, suspended for two years.
Now it's not very often that you'll hear me favourably quote Lord Tebbitt in this column - in fact, this is probably both the first and last occasion. But I heard him on the radio recently saying that, in his view, MPs had now lost all moral authority to talk about benefit fraud, given the row over MPs' expenses.

Wrongful applications
This is not simply a cheap point. Kitty Ussher MP is a DWP minister responsible for the social fund and recently announced tightening of crisis loans in order to reduce "inappropriate applications". This is the same Kitty Ussher who claimed for various improvements to her second home, including getting rid of decorations on the ceiling that she didn't like. "Most of the ceilings have Artex coverings...three-dimensional swirls. It could be a matter of taste, but this counts as 'dilapidations' in my book" She also claimed for plumbing, stating that "the plumbing is strange" and for a replacement stair carpet which was "grimy".
John McNulty, a DWP minister responsible for employment, claimed around £60,000 in allowances for a second home in his Harrow constituency, just 11 miles and a 40 minute tube ride away from Westminster. Yet he has recently decided that jobseekers' allowance claimants should be prepared to travel up to three hours a day (instead of the previous two) to find work.

Moral authority 
James Clappison, a Tory work and pensions spokesperson, used taxpayers' money to buy petunias, geraniums and busy lizzies for his "second home", part of his 24-strong property portfolio that includes a farm and a cricket club. Since 2001, Clappison has claimed a total of £102,241 in second home expenses. I've not listed the many MPs from all parties who "accidentally" claimed help with mortgages for properties that didn't have a mortgage.
None of the MPs named above made claims that were unlawful. But the words "moral authority" certainly spring to mind when set against the punishments that benefit claimants get when they make "mistakes" in their benefit claims.

Read service user Simon Heng's take on expenses story