The House of Commons has published more information about the expense claims made by MPs towards the end of the last Parliament.
The figures showthat 221 of the MPs who left Parliament at the last election claimed all or some of the £42,732 allowance provided to help them wind up their Commons operations.
The money is to help cover staff and office costs rather than line the pockets of departing parliamentarians and it is not suggested that those who made use of the fund should not have done so.
This is different from the much criticised "resettlement grant" worth up to £65,738, payable to ex-MPs to help them readjust to civilian life.
Statistics on which MPs have accepted the money are due to be published shortly following a freedom of information request from the Leicester Mercury newspaper.
The paper has questioned why some MPs who had well-paid jobs outside Parliament would need to accept a taxpayer funded redundency package.
But the Commons authorities had succesffully resisted making public which MPs had claimed the money until the newspaper won its FOI challenge.
The data published today covers claims made towards the end of the last Parliament when MPs were hit with the expenses scandal.
A searchable database on the parliamentary website will include all claims made in 2009/10 and 2010/11, up until May 7 2010 when responsibility for the administration of the parliamentary allowances passed to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).
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