How much are we worth ?
A question I hardly dare ask of some people! Tomorrow we are debating the level of Council allowance we get as a Councillor. Before tax I get £525.33 a week, which on my payslip shows up as £3.26 an hour. I assume that is assuming we work 37 ½ hours a week - if only! I have worked that amount this week already, it being 15 hours today before I put finger to keyboard for the blog.
There is no easy answer to this one, as giving yourself a pay rise is not likely to be flavour of the month, but the amount we are likely to be voting for will be less than an independent panel recommended.
On a related issue I am concerned that a relatively recently introduced carers allowance, to pay for the cost of a baby sitter or other sitter when on Council duty is recommended to be up to £8.71 an hour. This appears fine for a usual baby sitter, but nowhere near enough to cover the cost of anything more specialised that may be needed. I intend to move an amendment to that effect, suggesting the amount, if more that £8.71 an hour, is paid according to an assessment by a qualified officer. I will let you know what happens.
However I am not complaining about hours worked, and one probably takes out according to what one puts in. Today, after a raft of correspondence before leaving home at 9, I've been to a meeting, had a number of discussions about tomorrow night's meeting, met with officers over Council business, been right round the ward talking to and listening to people, as well as looking at problems. Then a partnership meeting, leaving early to arrive late at a meeting to set up a multi cultural football match, leaving early to arrive late at a meeting at premises in the ward to listen to the need for a smoking shelter and give ideas. Home to a long string of e-mails, and I haven't even looked at the post. I've met some great people, enjoyed getting a number of issues sorted out, even made some differences here and there. and isn't that what it is all about.
Comments: 2
: 0
And as for the allowance to cover the costs of a sitter while on council duties, once again it is HUGE. I have never heard of such a thing and while I applaud the basic principle of assisting those with care duties to be effective councillors, I find the idea of paying the entire care bill for someone's children or other dependents out of public money distasteful when the rest of us are only compensated 'up to 70%' of our care costs in tax credits, with an upper limit on what is reasonable spending.
About the carers allowance. the £8.71 is an upper limit and people have to claim against receipts, and only for a formal meeting. It is usually claimed for after school care which is nearly that amount or babysitters. My amendment was about the unusual cases where someone had to pay something like an agency nurse to look after a dependent. However this is likely to be very rare, the amount someone has to pay according to a proper care plan wil have to be agreed by the Director (or delegated) by the Head of Children, Education and Social Care, and there is a monthly ceiling on the amount that can be claimed. I hope you can see my point that it would be a large bill for someone needing to pay, say, £10 an hour for a 3 hour meeting, when they may have only the amount of their allowance to live on. No Councillor from any Party disagreed with this point.
Thank you again for pointing out my mistake though
For all categories