CYPRIOT MPs are among the highest paid MPs in Europe, earning 60 per cent more than their British counterparts after ten years on the job followed by 25 years in retirement, while only representing a quarter of the number of constituents.
In a report by daily Politis, Cypriot MPs were calculated to have taken home around €2,271,034 after 35 years spent in this way, compared with €1,404,192 for a British one.
The disparity is mainly thanks to a generous pension scheme offered to Cypriot MPs, who make no contributions towards their own pension yet receive almost three times the British pension.
For example, a British MP will pay around €91,500 in contributions over a ten year career and receive an annual pension of around €19,222. A Cypriot MP will pay nothing and get €58,398 annually, adding up to a staggering €1,459,951 over 25 years.
Green Party MP George Perdikis said yesterday that many MPs claim to have the lowest salaries in Europe, preferring to take the pension instead. However, he noted that the remuneration system was too different to make such a comparison.
There are certainly differences that make the two systems hard to compare. However, when expenses, hours worked and constituents served are factored in, Cypriot tax payers seem to get a much worse deal.
Asked about the number of hours worked, for example, former UK Labour MP Oona King said “MPs often work from about 8 am. It can be earlier. If you’re doing TV interviews, you often have to start at 6 am – not get up but start, so you’re getting up at 4 am and will often go through until about midnight.”
In contrast some Cypriot MPs have their political offices adjoining their legal practices so that they can have two jobs, and there are no minimum compulsory hours set.
Cypriot taxpayers do regain some value for money when the generous UK expenses allowances is factored in, but in the wake of the expenses scandal, which saw the tax payer foot the bill for various purchases including adult videos, duck ponds and in one case, the cleaning out of an MP’s castle-moat, many MPs have cut back.
British MPs can also have second sources of employment, and only 87 of 650 British MPs declared no such external interests, with some earning up to €21,261 per month in directorships. In addition, British MPs have a staffing expenditure allowance of €129,386 which can be used to pay a family member.
However, British MPs’ better value for money becomes clear when you consider that each MP represent around 68,000 constituents. In Cyprus each MP represents around 15,000.
