Cameron will repay £947

From @LabourList

David Cameron is to pay back the £947 that he wrongly claimed on expenses, bringing his total admitted misclaim to £1,627.

In a letter to the Commons Fees Office today, he outlined a variety of illegitimate payments. The full letter can be read below:

“Over the last few weeks, I have carefully gone through the claims I have made against the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) since 2004. This has brought to light a number of points. I would like to make clear that these were discovered as a result of a thorough review by my office, not as a result of media enquiries.

First, on 22 January 2007 I made a single claim for a maintenance bill of £680 for my home in Dean. This included a number of basic household repairs. On reflection, I would like to repay this bill, even though it was entirely legitimate under the ACA. I have already announced publicly I will be doing so.

Second, I have found an overpayment to me of £9.00 for my npower electricity and gas bill from 2007. I wrote to the Fees Office on 15 October 2007 to correct an overpayment of £20 following a change to my direct debit payment from eptember 2007. In fact, this was not the right amount – the overpayment for September 2007 was £29, not £20. So I will repay the extra £9.00 that is due.

I would also like to pay back two claims I have made from my IEP (incidental axpenditure provision). On 19 July 2006, I submitted a claim to reimburse my Constituency Researcher £22.50 for work-related calls he made on his mobile phone. I note from the Validation Claim Summary Sheet, completed by the Fees office, that he was actually reimbursed £32.50 rather than £22.50, as was originally claimed. This is the first opportunity I have had to see this paperwork and, therefore, notice this overpayment by the House of Commons, so I am keen to rectify this by repaying £10.

Also, on 8 November 2006, I submitted a claim to pay Reaper Enterprises Ltd. £146.88 for the hosting, maintenance and update of my constituency website. Part of this update included the addition of a ‘NHS Stop the Cuts Petition’, at £29.38. In August 2007, I was asked by the House of Commons to remove this page from my website. However, I now see from my IEP records that the cost for initially adding this page to my website has not been refunded. I am, therefore, paying back £29.38.

Finally, I have carefully checked through my claims for mortgage interest.

Having cross-checked my mortgage interest payments and my ACA claims, I have found an inadvertent administrative error during the year 2006/07. Throughout the year I submitted a regular monthly claim for mortgage interest. Although I under-claimed against my actual payments from April to October, I have found an overpayment for November and December 2006 combined. Taken together with the under-claims, there is a net overpayment to me for the year 2006/07 of £218.91.

This error was caused by the numerous changes to my monthly repayments during the latter part of the year, when my fixed-rate deal with the Derbyshire Building Society ended and when I subsequently transferred my mortgage to HSBC.

I am therefore enclosing a cheque for £947.29 to cover these amounts listed above.

David Cameron

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