Benefits and the deficit: what would you cut?

PasturesNew

How much is spent on free school dinners? And on teaching assistants (never used to have them)? And the £250 child trust funds?

Graham_Devon

PasturesNew wrote: »

How much is spent on free school dinners? And on teaching assistants (never used to have them)? And the £250 child trust funds?

£500 for some...

Don't see the point in them to be honest.

Kohoutek

ukcarper wrote: »

Not so easy when you need half a dozen things a month at £7.20 each.

Yes, but on the current system if you have to pay for a prescription you'll probably think twice if you need it...and if it's all free then it encourages doctors, pharmacists and patients to medicate excessively.

If you retire as a civil servant at 60 on a generous final salary pension I don't see why you should have free prescriptions and someone earning £18k a year doesn't. Of course, for the majority of pensioners they should remain free.

Graham_Devon

It won't encourage either doctors or pharmacists to prescribe excesively.

Kohoutek

Graham_Devon wrote: »

It won't encourage either doctors or pharmacists to prescribe excesively.

In my experience of my older relatives, they've been prescribed very expensive drugs that doctors later admitted have had a very minimal effect. Just my experience-I suppose it's another debate.

MissMoneypenny

I would stop the benefit payment for those who don't work and have mutiple wives. It's something like £60pw for the first wife and £50pw for each wife after that.

Plus child benefit would be paid in the wage packet. Too many people move abroad and don't tell the appropiate department, so they still get CB paid into their UK bank account. Limit it to 2 children per family and DNA to check they are their own children/they don't claim for more than 2.

Tax credits - gone. Every working family with children up to 16 years old, should get £15pw in the wage packet and this is regardless on how many children they choose to have. Those that don't work and have young children, free school meals.

Pensions - Have to pay in for 39 years instead of the 30 the government have dropped it to in April this year. No years counted towards this for signing on the dole.

Time to run the NHS the same way Germany runs theirs. Everyone has to have insurance, so that would keep the insurance costs down.

Graham_Devon

Kohoutek wrote: »

In my experience of my older relatives, they've been prescribed very expensive drugs that doctors later admitted have had a very minimal effect. Just my experience-I suppose it's another debate.

They won't know until they have tried them.

But basically the surgery has a budget. They pay for the drugs used. Well, theres a budget allocated to them.

Kohoutek

Some egregious examples of abuse of child benefit:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1238837/Family-16-live-37-000-year-benefits-fresh-blow-welfare-system.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483225/1m-child-benefit-paid-month--mothers-Poland.html

I can't believe the system hasn't been reformed to date with this potential for abuse.

nembot

Try going to Europe and claiming benefits, without having to put something in first, they would just laugh.

Easy going, politically correct and caring Britain, such admirable strengths yet also the cause of our undoing.

robpw2

lol another thread about benefits with the daily wail claiming all about how rich people are on benefits maybe just once they might want to look at those struggling but no why let sentiment get in the way of a good story