British parliament members criticized for making profit on residence policy

When the Houses of Parliament in the heart of London is your daily workplace, while you live hundreds of kilometers away, there's a problem on where do you choose to live.

 For the 650 British members of Parliament, the solution is an allowance to cover the cost of running two homes.


 The MPs can claim up to 25,000 pounds (about 40,384 U.S. dollars) per person per year towards renting and running a second home, either in their far flung constituencies or close to the Parliament buildings.


 As millions of Britons struggle to make ends meet in the wake of the financial squeeze, politicians have earned a reputation for taking care of themselves and forgetting the plight of those they represent.


 It is little wonder trust in MPs has fallen to an all-time low in the Britain, with only 20 percent of the population saying they have confidence in politicians.


 Some MPs have used every trick in the book to extract the maximum amount of money they are entitled to - not breaking the house rules, but certainly piling on the agony for those trying to convince the public their democratic representatives are honest.


 Just a few days ago, the government's equalities minister Helen Grant made headlines for claiming the maximum allowance to cover the cost of a second home close to the House of Commons, despite living in a 1.8-million-pound house just 19 miles from Westminster. Because her constituency is on the fringe of London she is entitled claim rent for a London flat.


 The Labour Party's John Mann MP, an outspoken critic of the Parliamentary expenses system described Grant's situation as outrageous and a farce.


 He wants the agency controlling expenses to re-write the rule book.


 Some MPs rent properties from other MPs, fuelling claims politicians just feather their own nests.


 The issue of MP's expenses caused outrage several years ago when it was learned many made false claims to extract extra money out of the system. It led to six MPs being jailed and a seventh waiting to learn in December whether he will be spending Christmas behind bars.


 Half of the MPs in the House of Commons had to repay around 1.1 million pounds they had wrongly claimed.


 That prompted demands for a clean-up, but a continual flow of disclosures just makes the image of MPs look even sleazier.


 There was public outrage just days ago with the disclosure half of Britain's MPs in the past year have claimed 200,000 pounds to cover heating and power bills for their second homes. This is against a background of fears by charity organizations saying escalating bills will lead to thousands of poor people in the UK having to decide in the cold winter months whether to spend their money on food or heating.


 Demands have been made to resolve the issue of by providing a residential campus for MPs close to the Houses of Parliament - eliminating the need for claims and therefore ending the ability to fiddle expenses.


 Critics of such a scheme say MPs are already segregated from the general public by working within the closeted and heavily guarded Houses of Parliament. A political ghetto would make them even more remote from the general public.


 Independent watchdogs, The Taxpayers Alliance, accepts MPs need two homes, but has called on them never to forget the plight of the people they represent.


 "Those MPs should show some at a time when many people are struggling with tough living conditions," said Alliance spokesman Robert Oxley.