Lizz Truss: 45 Days As PM, IDR 2 Billions Of Allowances Every Year For Life

Photo via Twitter @trussliz

JAKARTA - Liz Truss may be the briefest British Prime Minister in history. But even though she is short of work duration, she will receive an 115,000 bonus ($ 129,000 or more than Rp. 2 billion) every year.

Despite his short term of office, Truss has the right to receive payments under the Public Task Cost Allowance (PDCA), a program government-regulated since 1990 to help former Prime Ministers who are still active in public life.

The allowance is a 'wage' of the former prime minister for office fees and secretariats arising from their public duties.

"Payments are made just to meet the actual costs of continuing to fulfill public duties", according to the UK government website as quoted by CNN, Saturday, October 22.

All former Prime Ministers have the right to participate in PDCA.

PDCA has been restricted to 115.000 years since 2011 and is reviewed annually by the prime minister who is in office.

From 2020 to 2021, former prime ministers Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major were all replaced with varying amounts, according to Annual Reports and Accounts of Cabinet Offices 2020-21.

However, opposition politicians and trade unions urged Truss to reject the annual publicly funded allowance, as Britons grappled with a cost-of-life crisis due to soaring energy prices and inflation at a 40-year high.

"He didn't really deserve that, he had to refuse and didn't take it."

In his resignation speech outside the office door Number 10 Downing Street, Truss felt she could not fulfill the promise she made when running for Conservative leader. The party no longer believes in him.

"But I admit, given the situation, I cannot convey the mandate I chose by the Conservative Party. Therefore, I have spoken to His Majesty Raja to inform him that I have resigned as leader of the Conservative Party," Truss said, October 20.

Appointed on September 6, Truss was forced to sack his nearest finance minister and political ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, and abandon nearly all of his economic programs, after plans to cut large-scale unpaid taxes destroyed English pounds and bonds. The rating of approvals for him and his Conservative Party collapsed.