Legg’s ACA Review
Sir Thomas Legg’s review of MP’s living away from home allowances (ACA) will be published 4th February. In his letter to me dated 12 October, Legg said I had made a duplicate claim for March 2007, dated 31 March 2007 for £1630. I now know that I had mistakenly dated the claim for March 2007 when it should have been for January 2007.
I immediately accepted responsibility for wrongly dating the claim but there was no duplicate claim or overpayment from ACA. I was therefore disappointed that having provided him with evidence and explanation proving there was no duplicate payment, Legg decided that wrongly dating a claim justified his demand for repayment.
With regards the MIRAS statements demanded by Legg from mortgage Lenders, my lender Abbey National’s MIRAS statements confirmed interest payments 2004-2008 (4 years) totalled £24,540. For the same period Legg’s letter to me 12 October confirmed that I had claimed back from ACA £24,280. i.e. £24,540 paid out and £24,280 claimed back.
In his final report Legg asserted that there had been over payments from ACA in years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 (2 years) of £3783 and this figure should be repaid. I invited him to consider years 2006-07 and 2007-08 (2years) where I had paid the same amount more in mortgage interest than claimed from ACA. Again Sir Thomas Legg reached his conclusions by defining his remit to look only for over payments from ACA whilst ignoring overall expenditure over the piece of his review 2004-2008 against claims.
Legg’s ACA review
Legg’s ACA Review
Sir Thomas Legg’s review of MP’s living away from home allowances (ACA) will be published 4th February. In his letter to me dated 12 October, Legg said I had made a duplicate claim for March 2007, dated 31 March 2007 for £1630. I now know that I had mistakenly dated the claim for March 2007 when it should have been for January 2007.
I immediately accepted responsibility for wrongly dating the claim but there was no duplicate claim or overpayment from ACA. I was therefore disappointed that having provided him with evidence and explanation proving there was no duplicate payment, Legg decided that wrongly dating a claim justified his demand for repayment.
With regards the MIRAS statements demanded by Legg from mortgage Lenders, my lender Abbey National’s MIRAS statements confirmed interest payments 2004-2008 (4 years) totalled £24,540. For the same period Legg’s letter to me 12 October confirmed that I had claimed back from ACA £24,280. i.e. £24,540 paid out and £24,280 claimed back.
In his final report Legg asserted that there had been over payments from ACA in years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 (2 years) of £3783 and this figure should be repaid. I invited him to consider years 2006-07 and 2007-08 (2years) where I had paid the same amount more in mortgage interest than claimed from ACA. Again Sir Thomas Legg reached his conclusions by defining his remit to look only for over payments from ACA whilst ignoring overall expenditure over the piece of his review 2004-2008 against claims.