The biggest story in the UK over the last week or two has been the leaking and subsequent publication of the expenses claims of our "Honourable" Members of Parliament. Some wonderfully amusing claims on the public purse have been made (from MPs of all parties) from the criminally fradulent through to the routinely grasping, up to the amusingly trivial.
Highlights include:
- Repeatedly "flipping" which house of theirs they claim as their second home, thus entitling them to free extra expenses allowances on upkeep of the "new" second home.
- Claiming mortgage relief on properties that don't have mortgages
- Claiming more for council tax than actually paid out
- £8k plasma screen TVs
- Dredging moats
- Mole control
- Helipad maintenance
- Piano tuning
- Trouser presses
- Lightbulbs
- Hanging baskets & flowers
(more details here, if you're interested. Personally I love the way the different claims reveal loads about the nature of the parties - leaving aside the criminal cases, the other Labour claims are pettily bourgeois, while the Tory ones tend to be more haughtily patrician
)
There's a lot of public anger over this, most of which I rather think is simple envy at not being able to claim this sort of stuff themselves in their own jobs. A very few members of the public interviewed occasionally grin & admit a grudging admiration for the sheer daring of some of these claims.
It made me wonder... what's the most outrageous thing YOU'VE ever claimed (or tried to claim) on your expenses? And more importantly did you get away with it?
If you don't have an expenses facility, feel free to tell us about most outrageous freebie you got off your employer/university/insider trader/mafia contact/etc!
Plus, there's an anonymous poll, for you to tell us if you've ever "massaged" your expenses claims.
Or you can just join in the laughter about the MPs claims..
For me, the MPs have inspired me to see if the accountant agrees that the "shareholders annual meeting" for a small business I run with a friend can be done in the Caribbean & the associated costs met by the company.
Highlights include:
- Repeatedly "flipping" which house of theirs they claim as their second home, thus entitling them to free extra expenses allowances on upkeep of the "new" second home.
- Claiming mortgage relief on properties that don't have mortgages
- Claiming more for council tax than actually paid out
- £8k plasma screen TVs
- Dredging moats
- Mole control
- Helipad maintenance
- Piano tuning
- Trouser presses
- Lightbulbs
- Hanging baskets & flowers
(more details here, if you're interested. Personally I love the way the different claims reveal loads about the nature of the parties - leaving aside the criminal cases, the other Labour claims are pettily bourgeois, while the Tory ones tend to be more haughtily patrician
)There's a lot of public anger over this, most of which I rather think is simple envy at not being able to claim this sort of stuff themselves in their own jobs. A very few members of the public interviewed occasionally grin & admit a grudging admiration for the sheer daring of some of these claims.
It made me wonder... what's the most outrageous thing YOU'VE ever claimed (or tried to claim) on your expenses? And more importantly did you get away with it?
If you don't have an expenses facility, feel free to tell us about most outrageous freebie you got off your employer/university/insider trader/mafia contact/etc!
Plus, there's an anonymous poll, for you to tell us if you've ever "massaged" your expenses claims.
Or you can just join in the laughter about the MPs claims..
For me, the MPs have inspired me to see if the accountant agrees that the "shareholders annual meeting" for a small business I run with a friend can be done in the Caribbean & the associated costs met by the company.
the only bit of purchase we get are drug rep goodies, mostly pens. 
) from a Zyprexa rep meeting that was just lying around, unclaimed by anyone once the meeting had finished, which was nice. Also, I managed to obtain some leftovers from a drug lunchtime meeting during a night shift in my first year of work (mini-Kievs FTW 
) which helped. And of course the 1Gb pen drive a while back. 
