DWP minister fined £1367 by standards watchdog for breaking expenses rules

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister broke parliamentary expenses rules by allowing his local constituency party to use his office and his printer, a standards watchdog has found.

The report by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which was compiled following a months-long investigation into Pensions Minister Paul Maynard's use of his taxpayer-funded office and printer for party political purposes, found that he had under-reported the use of his office and printer for campaigning purposes - ordering him to repay £1367.

Published today (May 16), the IPSA ruling comes just days after the DWP released its new Fraud Plan which, among other measures, aims to reduce the prevalence of error and fraud in the benefits system.

The minister accepted the findings of the report and, after negotiation, agreed to promptly pay back the estimated cost of the use of his printer and office. READ MORE: DWP spells out exactly who will be looking at benefit claimants' bank accounts The investigation found that the Blackpool North MP had broken the rules by allowing local campaigners to use his constituency office's state-of-the-art printer to produce "overtly political" literature over many years, while the party supposedly paid for its own paper and ink.