If you were PM... where would you cut back?

rogerj

AXE PENSIONS AND BENEFITS FIRST…. Is what most of you have voted for in Martins poll.

Since more goes on pensions than any other benefit, I hope those who voted for cuts will be able to survive on the basic State Retirement Pension of just £95.25 a week....
And you have to pay in enough years of NI contributions to get even that much.

It’s the lowest in Europe; under half the amount the French and Germans receive.

But can you rely on the sinking private pension industry? Most of the final salary schemes have run into deficit and are being scrapped; replaced by money purchase schemes.

Those in money purchase schemes will see their income fall by an astonishing 63%, according to Fidelity [see ‘Will You Be a Private Pension Pauper?’ on https://www.lovemoney.com ]

I can survive without nuclear subs, but can I survive without a pension!

ScittyPopBicks

glossyhair wrote: »

I would imagine that most of the people suggesting cutting benefits are not in the unfortunate position of having to live on them! :mad::mad::mad: To those people I say, not everyone who is claiming is a lazy scrounger; I am unemployed through no fault of my own and I have paid NI and taxes when I have been in work for the past 25 years . . . why should I not be entitled to some of it back when I am in need??

BTW, I am a single woman, with no kids and I have to live on the standard rate of £68 per week. You try it!! :eek::eek::eek: It is a constant fight to stay out of debt and endless juggling of funds in an attempt to make ends meet.

I don't have a posh car, plasma TV, Sky subscription TV, or an iPhone. I don't smoke, I don't drink alcohol very often and I don't spend my days watching Jeremy Kyle on TV. I am getting very,very tired of being judged unfairly.

I remember reading the book The Phantom Tollbooth when I was much younger and the one phrase that sticks in my mind is something along the lines of "it is very easy to jump to Conclusions but very difficult to get back again."

I agree, allot of people who havnt lost there jobs don't have a clue how you're supposed to live of £40 a week! I'm employed but have had to have benifits in the past to get me through untill i got a job. :eek: Hate people who judge you cause your on benifits and to even do that now is disgusting as i know allot of people who had good stable jobs to have suddenly become redundant!

jumpycheese1

I would give a MAXIMUM of 8 hours of NMW to those lazy bums that cannot be bothered to get off their backside to work. Nowt else. Then give these savings to pensioners and those who are unemployed and are seeking work.

Those who are claiming sickness benefits - get them assessed to see if they can do any work at all and offer free training. If they bottle it - the person pays back the cost of training. I understand that there are people who are unable to work at all.

jumpycheese1

I would scrap IVF on the NHS as its not life threatening if you do not have children. You aren't going to die because you are childless. There are hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of people in the UK that don't have children and they healthy.

Having children is a privilege and not a right.

zygurat789

gb57 wrote: »

The people who don't pay tax or NI or anything else are those on benefits. (By the way, I don't think of the short-term unemployed desperately looking for a job in the same way as those who make it their life's "work" not to go to work).

So, scrap tax credits altogether (why are they being paid to people with an income of £20k and more?). Increase Tax allowances so that no-one earning, say, £10k or less pays any tax at all. Find some method of helping those who are then still truly poor although working that does not include mountains of bureaucracy.

No, I don't know the answer....

It's not often that you see really positive ideas in places like this.
Surely with all the imagination dislpayed here we can come up with something Any ideas anyone?

zygurat789

If you look at the HM Treasury site from which the original figures were taken I think you will find that the don't add up. No wonder the nations finances are in such a bad way when our highly (overpaid) civil service can't even get a few figures to add up!

beer_tins

GIJane1774 wrote: »

How much of our hard earned money does our 'hard working' government GIVE AWAY to other countries? Our government gives millions and millions away in so called aide whilst also making it the easiest and most lucrative place to go if you're an immigrant. When I lost my job after many years of working hard and giving my money to the tax man, where was the help for me? I very nearly lost my home, had a bad credit rating for many years after and am still struggling to get myself sorted. Shouldn't our money be used to help our people first and foremost? And no I do not include all the benefit cheats and layabouts, I agree with the voucher idea below. Then they can only spend it on certain things. My mum is disabled, my dad a full time carer, do they get a decent amount of benefit? NO!!!! But there are plenty of people in better health than her that do. The system is wrong, it does not look after the people that pay into it and work hard and lead honest lives.

The vast majority of aid that Britain "gives away" is in the form of loans, that we charge interest on. Yes, that counts as aid for some reason. It also comes with conditions, like the money must be used to pay for British goods and services.

Even ignoring all that, foreign aid accounts for less than 1% of GDP, so it wouldn't achieve much.

The biggest savings are to be gained by scrapping expensive pet projects, unnecessary levels of public sector management and bureaucracy. My favourites in no particular order:

1) The MOD. I'm not talking about equipment for front line soldiers, I'm talking about the waste and expensive project such as Trident and shiny new aircraft carriers we don't really need.

2) The NHS. The amount of managers in the NHS has increased massively over the last 20-25 years or so. I don't believe they have saved us as much as they cost us!

3) Scrap ID cards. We don't need expensive biometric cards that cost billions. If you want to do it, why not a simple card with a photo and some basic information to help the police identify you. Nothing else is required.

4) Scrap road tax and (proposed) congestion tolls. Raise fuel duty instead. That way the biggest users, polluters and "congestion causers"* will pay the most, with no need for bureaucracy or expensive toys.

5) Scrap tax credits. Instead, raise everyone's tax free threshold. That way, those at the bottom end of the pay scale get to keep more of their money, without the need for maintaining an expensive level of bureaucracy. If the books need to be balanced, the tax rates and the higher rate tax level can be adjusted accordingly.

JustJewels

I am sick of the naysayers who come on boards and forums like this, saying, “All public servants are incompetents, let’s get rid of them”, which is often contradictorily matched with, “private business are sharks, hang the lot of them”. And often combined with, “All people on benefits are lazy scum” – which naturally begs the question, who is left? The self righteous poster, obviously…

Where are the realistic and sensible suggested alternatives?



Here's my suggestion



If a company trades in the UK, it is headquartered here. No moving operations overseas to save tax.



Where are the innovate ideas for old problems? If single mothers provoke fury, why not train them to become nursery nurses?

If a person is disabled, stop concentrating on what they cannot do, and concentrate on what they can do. If you can read, you can make audio books for the blind. If you can use your hands, you can operate a telephone. More facilitation, less lip service.


I think it is a human scandal that basic) housing is not a right if you are a single person. More social housing please (not estates), and no right to buy…social housing is for the community, not for profit. I would gladly volunteer my time to a social housing project.



Some countries have compulsory military service. We should have compulsory community service (in the widest sense of the word). Every citizen should serve at least 1 year on local council, charity board, court, prison, hospital, school etc – national compulsory service. To promote understanding, and lessen pontification on subjects most people have no direct experience of!




More "internships" or whatever you want to call them, for people on benefits who want to work, but can't because employers discriminate against them for being unemployed in the first place!

zygurat789

beer_tins wrote: »

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5) Scrap tax credits. Instead, raise everyone's tax free threshold. That way, those at the bottom end of the pay scale get to keep more of their money, without the need for maintaining an expensive level of bureaucracy. If the books need to be balanced, the tax rates and the higher rate tax level can be adjusted accordingly.

All this achievies is a tax reduction for everyone, including the already grossly overpaid, except those who don't pay tax, who are the very ones who you say you are trying to help

beer_tins

zygurat789 wrote: »

All this achievies is a tax reduction for everyone, including the already grossly overpaid, except those who don't pay tax, who are the very ones who you say you are trying to help

No, I said the tax rates and the higher rate tax level can be adjusted accordingly. So for example the starting and/or higher rate of tax would be higher, so that people earning over a certain amount would be paying the same, or more tax.

I also said those at the bottom end of the pay scale, so the ones that are working, but not earning much. The unemployed would still need to get jobseekers and benefits. It would do away with the need for people to (effectively) pay tax, only to claim it back again.