MPs REDUNDANCY BENEFITS

Teresa Hunter in an article in Scotland on Sunday makes some interesting points on how the redundancy payments could be eroded for some workers,
In a previous article here in the Socialist Courier, the advantages of being an MP were, you decide what MPs need and vote it through parliament, this part of the article shows further advantages over the rest of us.
Is this money taxed?
"The first £30,000 of a redundancy payout is free from tax and National Insurance, provided it is genuinely compensation for redundancy. Above this amount, payments are added to your earnings for that year and taxed at your highest marginal rate. To qualify for £30,000 tax exemption you must be made redundant. Gardening leave, for example, is not redundancy, and neither is three months' salary in lieu of notice.PricewaterhouseCoopers' tax partner Valerie Smart said:
"The (HM Customs &] Revenue can also be very difficult about contractual payments. So, for example, if you have a contract which says you must be paid so much if the employer asks you to leave early, they view this as a contractual payment not redundancy."Even more worrying, the taxman is increasingly scrutinising redundancy payments made to people in their 50s. Smart adds: "If you are made redundant in your 50s and never work again, is that redundancy or pre-retirement? If you don't work again, they are beginning to try to argue that it is a retirement lump sum and should be taxed."The exception to this rule is MPs who enjoy a special privilege, extended in the recent Budget to members of the Greater London Council, and London mayor Ken Livingstone.If MPs lose an election or decide to leave they can apply for a resettlement grant which can pay half of their £61,000 salary if they have been in the house for less than 10 years, rising to 100% over 15 years at certain age groups. MPs enjoy the first £30,000 of their resettlement grant tax-free, even though they would not be entitled to under the rules which apply to the rest of us."