Lawmakers in expenses scandal to get £30m

London: Scores of MPs caught up in the Parliamentary expenses scandal will walk away from the Commons with a £30 million (Dh172 million) payday courtesy of the taxpayer.

Even after being hit in the pocket by returning money falsely claimed in allowances, most of them will end up with a substantial gain.

On the day they receive their final demand to settle their fines, the MPs will be given golden handshakes of up to £65,000, with the average lump sum being £48,662.

So 72 of the 73 MPs standing down at the Election after being told to return expenses will be left in credit. Some will be £64,000 better off.

TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: "It is scandalous that some of the worst perpetrators in the expenses affair are pocketing yet more taxpayers' money as they sail off into retirement."

Tory ex-Minister Douglas Hogg, who claimed for cleaning his moat, will be left with more than £44,000 after paying off his £20,639 fine.

Labour's Margaret Moran, who claimed for treating dry rot at a second home in Southampton although her seat is in Luton, will walk off with £48,403 after returning £6,000. Tory MP Peter Viggers, who claimed for a duck house, will be £19,138 richer after repaying £13,245.

Retiring MPs are entitled to three main benefits: a "resettlement grant" of up to £64,766, a standard "winding-up" grant of £40,799 to pay off staff, and a pension averaging £19,000-a-year. That means the total cost of paying off the 73 MPs who have had to return expenses money is nearly £30 million.

Most of the MPs on The Mail on Sunday list deny any wrongdoing over their expenses and insist that their decision to step down is unconnected to the scandal.