Rejected petition Abolish the Public Duty Costs Allowance

Rejected on 24 October 2022

Abolish the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) scheme with immediate effect.

PDCA was introduced in '91 to assist former Prime Ministers still active in public life, allowing them all to claim up to £115,000 p.a. from the public purse, over and above their pension and other earnings. But the landscape has changed and become more lucrative; it is hard to imagine any former PM needing this pay-out. With seven living former PMs, abolishing the PDCA could save the public purse in excess of £1 million per year, as well as right a moral wrong at a time of widespread austerity.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

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You may wish to sign this petition which calls for the same action:

Abolish the Public Duties Cost Allowance (PDCA) for former Prime Ministers: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/625940

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.