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MPs have been handed up to £10,000 each to help them and their staff work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

They were given an immediate raise to their annual office costs budget last month, taking it from a maximum of £25,910 to £35,910 per year.

For MPs who live in London the maximum budget is £28,800 so will rise to £38,800.

If the money is not spent on office costs, it will not otherwise go to an MP or their staff.

The raise was announced in a bulletin placed on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority website last month.

The bulletin is dated March 19 - a day before a furlough scheme was announced for workers, and a week before a bailout was announced for the self-employed that will only arrive in June.

(Image: PA)

IPSA told MPs the cash would give "the resources and flexibility to concentrate on your parliamentary duties and support your staff at this time."

But questions have been raised over the scale of the payment while 1.2million claims for Universal Credit are made in three weeks, and self-employed people have to wait until June for government bailout cash.

Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, told The Times: "It seems to me a very crude approach [from Ipsa].

"I think the public may be slightly puzzled as to why what looks like a generous payment of this nature has been made without first doing a bit more research into what the actual costs are."

Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, defended the payment and emphasised it was made by IPSA independently of the government.

(Image: Leon Neal)

He told LBC Radio: "The way you say it gives the impression it's £10,000 coming into my pocket.

"IPSA... make disseminations about the resources needed to support our constituencies at a time when we are having huge amounts of casework.

"I’ve certainly got vast increase in the number of people that are contacting me with concerns around Coronavirus."

MPs have an office costs budget which supports the inevitable costs of having a physical office in their constituency. It goes on heating bills, furniture, stationery and other costs. There is a separate staffing budget.

It is £25,910 a year, or £28,800 for those in London, plus an extra £6,000 in start-up costs for one year if MPs have only just joined Parliament.

It does not mean MPs get the cash in hand - they must spend money and then be reimbursed for appropriate expenses, which are checked by IPSA.

IPSA also told MPs their monthly credit limit on their payment cards has been increased to £10,000 to help with cash flow.

The watchdog also suspended the 90-day limit for costs that have been incurred since the start of January 2020.

Claims will also be paid before a receipt can be provided, with evidence only being sent in later.

Cabinet minister Mr Dowden said: "I believe that this money is being used to help ramp up the capacity of MPs to deal with it, but it’s not benefiting MP’s personally.

"It’s about ensuring they have the capacity to deal with these challenges.

"The government is doing a huge amount itself to support businesses, the tens of billions of pounds support going through in order to, we have loan schemes, we have the furlough schemes."