Now for the £11.5m golden goodbyes! Every ousted MP can claim redundancy package - and Ed Balls is entitled to £88,000 payout

MPs who have lost their seats or stood down are entitled to up to £11.5m
The share of the public money is a 'golden goodbye' for around 170 MPs
Ed Balls, Vince Cable and Esther McVey are among those who will benefit
Figure set to exceed £10.4m claimed after the last election despite reforms

MPs who have lost their seats or stood down from the House of Commons will be entitled to up to £11.5million in 'golden goodbyes', it has emerged.

The eye-watering amount of public money can be claimed by the 80-plus MPs voted out by the electorate as well as the 90 who did not stand for re-election.

It is higher than the £10.4million claimed after the 2010 election when the system was reformed to counter what were seen as lavish payments.

Ed Balls is entitled to an £88,000 taxpayer-funded 'golden goodbye' after losing his seat while others who can claim include Lib Dems Simon Hughes and Vince Cable and Tory Esther McVey.

The former Labour shadow chancellor, ousted in Morley and Outwood, can claim one month of his £67,060 MPs' salary for each year he has been in the Commons, up to a maximum six years.

As he was elected in 2005 he gets a £33,530 redundancy package.

He can also claim up to £53,950 in 'winding up' expenses over the next two months to cover the closure of his office and the cost of redundancy payments for his staff.
In all, the 80-plus MPs voted out and 90 who stood down are entitled to £11.5million in 'winding up' money.

TaxPayers' Alliance's John O'Connell said: 'Taxpayers will be astounded at the remarkable size of this bill.

'The changes to the system since the expenses scandal are welcome, but there remains much to do to reduce the cost of politics.

'It is clear that IPSA, the overgrown monster of a quango responsible for these payouts, is totally out of touch with public opinion.'

After the last election a total of £10.4million was paid in resettlement grants to 220 MPs, but the system was deemed so lavish that payments were slashed for those kicked out in May.
Although that hasn't stopped the estimated pay-offs exceeding the total at the last election, the £11.5million is not as high as first feared. IPSA had forecast that winding up the offices of former MPs could cost as much as £13.3million.

On top of that it expected the cost of redundancy payments for the staff of MPs standing down would be around £2.1million, as well as £3million for those voted out.

In 2010, 14 former MPs were given huge pay-offs when they were kicked out by voters at the last General Election - only to be selected to stand again this time around.

The 12 Labour and two Liberal Democrat MPs were each given 'golden goodbyes' worth up to £55,000 when they lost their seats in 2010.

Between them they were handed a total of £650,898.

All were reselected by their parties in the same seats they contested five years ago. Many of the so-called 'retreads' were kicked out after finding themselves embroiled in the expenses scandal.

In addition, Alex Salmond, who stood down as an MP in 2010 and received a £65,000 payout, stood again for Westminster after resigning last year as Scottish first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party. He won the Gordon constituency seat for the SNP.

After tax, Mr Salmond received about £50,000 and donated half to a charity named after his late mother.

The expenses watchdog, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, has said it is powerless to recover any payments if MPs are re-elected.

Why do they get anything? With fixed term parliaments surely it's no different to being on a fixed contract in the real world? You know when the contact ends and it's up to you if you look for another job or hope the contract is extended. You don't expect your employer to pay you anything.