Biggest cuts since second world war

Linton

People keep on suggesting public service pensions as an area to cut. It may well be.

But if they moved the public sector to a defined contribution scheme today it would make little difference for perhaps 20 years. After all you cant removed benefits that people have already earned up til now. People would still be receiving some amount in final salary pensions for perhaps the next 60 years.

So unfortunately you are going to have to look elsewhere if you want to cut to reduce the deficit in the next 5 years.

Blacklight

People in public sector jobs just need to get in the real world. End of story.

StevieJ

Blacklight wrote: »

Spot the odd one out. I'd know where I'd look if I was planning to find 17%.

Does that 17% include the state pension?

marklv

drc wrote: »

Oh dear. Doesn't look good for Blighty. Cameron is saying that we are going to have the biggest cuts since the second world war and that there are years of pain ahead. The cuts announced so far are very sketchy. So far we have heard of possible raises to CGT, income tax, NI, VAT and cuts to some benefits such as child trust funds and possibly cuts to tax credits to higher earners. I don't think this is going to make much of a dent on the defecit. Surely the really apocalyptic cuts/tax rises will not be announced until 22nd June. What do you think they are likely to be?

I think child benefit and tax credits should be abolished for all but the very poorest. Likewise with housing benefit - no more immigrant families in Belgravia mansions!!

1984ReturnsForReal_2

marklv wrote: »

I think child benefit and tax credits should be abolished for all but the very poorest. Likewise with housing benefit - no more immigrant families in Belgravia mansions!!

Yep. Belgravia is swarming with them

marklv

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Yep. Belgravia is swarming with them

Don't be facetious. Far too much money is squandered on housing benefit for huge families - this needs to be cut sharply.

marklv

Linton wrote: »

People keep on suggesting public service pensions as an area to cut. It may well be.

But if they moved the public sector to a defined contribution scheme today it would make little difference for perhaps 20 years. After all you cant removed benefits that people have already earned up til now. People would still be receiving some amount in final salary pensions for perhaps the next 60 years.

So unfortunately you are going to have to look elsewhere if you want to cut to reduce the deficit in the next 5 years.

This issue of public sector pensions is an old chestnut that refuses to go away. With the soon-to-arrive mass redundancies and pay freezes throughout the public sector this issue will no longer be that big a deal. Moreoever, even if the government can't remove existing pension contracts, new joiners will probably find themselves on defined contribution schemes, and exitsing members will have to fork out greater contributions for their salary based schemes.

donaldtramp

Lets explain just how big the public sector pension deficit is shall we?
It is now approaching £1 TRILLION (Not Million, Not Billion, TRILLION) pounds.

To give you an idea of the truly mind boggling debt we have built up in public sector spending and the public sector's bullet proof "magical" pensions.
Have a read at the article below which helps show the difference between Millions, Billions and Trillions.

A) How many days is 1 Million seconds?

Have a think...




It's Around 11 and 1/2 days.

How many days is 1 TRILLION seconds?
(FYI The public sector pension deficit is approaching £1 Trillion)


The answer is.......


31,709 YEARS


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...ar-rescue-plan

This simple analogy helps show the scale of our problems very nicely.
It also explains why the public sector will be quite rightly cut back.

We simply cannot afford the size it ballooned to under Brown.

Butterfly_Brain

:wall:Think of the billions we could save if we were not in the EU
I believe the UK's contribution is £68 billion this year alone and is set to rise again next year - I can't see them bailing us out like they did Greece yet we are one of the highest contributors, if not the highest :eek:

amcluesent

Now and again we read that the public debt is equivalent to £30k (approx) per person in Britain.

Now, supposing people who had that money sitting in the bank sent a 'one off' cheque to the Treasury. What future entitlements should that 'buy' in return for cash today which will offset decades of interest payable on govt. bonds?

I'd be happy to pay £30K tomorrow in return for -

1) Guaranteed free place in nursing home in old age until death
2) Waiving of NICE bans on 'too expensive' drugs on the NHS, effective immediately
3) Contribution based JSA payable indefinitely, if unwaged
4) Doubling of personal tax allowance until retirement, effective immediately
5) 'No charge' any time caught on speed scameras, effective immediately

HMG should offer a 'menu' of incentives to peeps and I'm sure they'd get takers to make capital payments to Treasury.