What Goverment spending would you cut? poll discussion

charliewiggs

pine_lady wrote: »

If I were the government I would start by looking at the waste in paying final salary pensions to MP's and other Parlimentary personnel. This would amount to quite a substantial pot of money and give the govenment a few brownie points in showing that they are willing to give up a few freebies. We in the private sector had our pensions raped by the previous government and final salary pensions are almost unheard of. The money needed to fund the MP's final sarary pensions is astronomicial and the tax payer has to pay this 'hidden' expense. Come on David, show us what a good leader you can be.

They aquire lots of money when in government so should pay own pension out of it.AND if they dont like it KEEP OUT OF GOVERNMENT

GMT49

Law and Order is obviously important, but convicted criminals are treated better than our elderly.
Foreign criminals should face deportation instead of a cosy prison cell, and banned from re-entry into the country.

silverbullit

I agree with the many who have expressed the view that a lot of waste in public services could be cut without detriment to the overall quality of the service.

However, I think that the ConDems should be paying much more attention to the estimated £40-£120bn(!) that is lost to the Treasury through tax evasion, tax avoidance and uncollected taxes (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/02/tax-avoidance-hmrc-errors).

How can the government justify savage cuts to basic services that are vital to some of the poorest people in the country while letting some of the wealthiest people/businesses get away with tax avoidance on such a monumental scale. Of course, you don't hear the Tories talking much about clamping down on tax avoidance because it is they and their wealthy chums in the City who are engaging in it.

Also, call me a bleeding heart but for a country as wealthy as the UK to consider cutting the overseas aid budget - which, let's not forget, is 0.7% of GNI - would be a dereliction of our moral duty. Of course, we should still be doing much more to ensure that the aid actually goes to those who most need it with much less being spent on administration.

voiceofreason

charliewiggs wrote: »

as a 59yr old person who voted for the eu I was hoodwinked and would dearly like OUT

If you made the wrong decision before, why should you be given another chance to possibly muck it up again?

tabskitten

lizzyshep wrote: »

Hear hear :T


It goes without saying that people in real need should always be helped. As for teenage mothers, I think there are sometimes complex issues there that we need to look at first, rather than just saying they shouldn't get money, or that they should have to live with their parents, when the parents' home might not be a suitable place to raise their child.

I could have wriitn this opinion myself!!

axxerz

Most people working in the private sector will probably have lost their 'Defined Benefits' pension and have had to get a 'Defined Contributions' pension - if you're one of the lucky ones still on a defined benefit pension you might have heard that it may be dropped in the near future.
The reason for the demise of the Defined Benefits pension in the private sector is because they are no longer affordable in our turbulant economic climate and because people are living longer and continuing to draw from the 'benefits pot' at an older age. If the private sector have had to make this change, how can the public sector continue to support a defined benefits pension programme when this has to be paid for out of tax payers money?? It's about time the Government reviewed the current public sctor defined benefits pension schemes and decided whether or not this is realistically affordable for the country (It coulld be that it is possibel to keep this open, but it certainly needs to be assessed and past governments have been to scared to do this).

puckstopper

Cut overseas aid and cut benifits, why are we putting millions into India when they have there own space programme and are a nuclear armed state. The aid programme should be reviewd so only the people who are really in need of our help get it. As for benifits i now people who have never worked or intend to work in there lives and what is worse there off spring are following in there footsteps. I say make them work for there benifits if they are not even attempting to look for work.

As for cutting the defense budget you people are crazy, its been cut back for years by Gordon Brown. If anything its one budget that should be increased every year to ensure we have the right equipment and resourses for our armed forces so they are able to defend this country. And as for scrapping Trident, wrong again, yes it will cost approxamtly £100 billion over 25 years to replace but when you compare that to the NHS budget at £124 billion a year i think that represents extremley good value for money. And do we really want to have to rely on the USA or god forbid the French to protect us from possible future threats.

chey_2

chocolatemaniac wrote: »

I agree, there are too many people claiming benefits and too many doing so under false pretences.
I also think that benefits should be set at the current minimum wage. If someone has decided that the min wage is what a person can live on, then any benefits should not exceed that. The only exceptions should be disability preventing work ( and I mean genuineley unable to work) :beer:

I wish JSA was equal to the national minimum wage. I was entitled to it for a while at the end of last year, but because I had a private pension of £300 pcm from my late husband I was entitled to a big fat zero, which then meant that I could not claim council tax benefit either. JSA is currently £65.45 a week for a single parent which equates to £283.62 pcm. The only benefits I could claim was CTC and CHB totalling another £300 pcm. If I could have found a job for 40 hrs at £5.80 I would have had an income of £1005 pcm and been better off by £400.

centurian

ehlo wrote: »

All overseas aid. There is no reason for us to give money away until our own debts are completely resolved

You could also argue that our taxes should not be going to foreign countries anyway. People with money to give away should be able to have control themselves over where it goes (which specific countries it goes to etc).

We are apparently, and according to the new government, so much in debt that there can be no money left to give away.

The regimes in the countries we provide with aid are often so corrupt that one can't help but wonder if the needy ever benefit from any of it. And, has everyone forgotten that not so long ago many "Third World" debts were written off ? I wonder if anyone out there will be willing to write off our debt. I don't think so!

chey_2

I am optimistic that this new government really does want to put things right, but then I've felt that with every other government and look what they did!
I think the government should cut a huge chunk off overseas aid as there are plenty of good charities doing their bit on location. These people don't want handouts, they want the means to be able to sort themselves out. The best way we can help is by buying their products to help improve their economy.
And I totally agree that benefits should be stopped for people earning a high salary. Why should the tax payer fund their wine cellars and holidays in the Med. Even pensioners on high private pensions should be means tested.
I have a relative who works for a government dept who tells me that because of the Data Protection Act the various departments are not allowed to share information. How much time and money is being wasted when several departments are dealing with the same person for different benefits. Surely they can have all our info on one central database?
Someone said earlier about making absent parents pay for their kids and I totally agree If the NI number of both parents was recorded on the birth cert or in some database somewhere, then they will always be traceable in the event of a split up. Also, the state should not support any teenage girl who gets pregnant as a result of a drunken one night stand and can't remember who the father is. Time to take a moral stance on this.