What Goverment spending would you cut? poll discussion

welshmike_2

It makes most financial sense to start with cutting expense from the big ticket items such as Social Protection and Health. I say that even as a Pensioner with Heart problems.
However, if you look at the pie chart at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UKExpenditure.svg
there is £72 billion wedge of "Other" expenditure that needs to be looked at too.
Maybe Education at £88 billion should also be looked at with the previous Governments' push to encourage almost every young person to study for a degree, no matter what subject.
Instead I suggest that the expenditure is limited to support and encourage young people to study for appropriate degees so that graduates in time will work in areas that provide a high level of revenue for the country and a source of tax to the State.

Owain_Moneysaver

Gordon_the_Moron wrote: »

D. Health (the NHS £124bn)
The budget should NOT be reduced, the cost of running the NHS will always increase year on year and above inflation.

That wasn't the plan when the NHS was formed. It was thought that improvements in health would cause a natural cap on the expenditure.

However the NHS is paying out for things it shouldn't be. In 2005/6 there were over a quarter of a million admissions to NHS hospitals in England for
selected alcohol-related diagnoses (mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol, alcoholic liver disease and toxic effects of alcohol). Hospital admissions for these diagnoses have virtually doubled since 1997. Overall probably around 1 in 16 of all hospital admissions are for alcohol-related causes.
Alcohol-related diseases account for 1 in 8 NHS bed days (around 2 million) and 1 in 8 NHS day cases (around 40,000).
The Strategy Unit calculated the cost to the NHS in England and Wales of treating alcohol-related conditions to be up to £1.7 billion per annum.

So if we could stop using hospitals as drying-out units for the Friday night befuddled we could make a hefty slice of savings.

It's tempting to cut overseas aid, but abolishing it entirely would only save £12bn, less than a 10% cut in NHS.

Social Protection - a stupidly high spend but hard to cut across the board without causing hardship. And if there are economies elsewhere in public spending (much of which is salaries) then unemployment is likely to rise.

Figures are probably for England/Wales only - Scotland has a higher per capita spend under Barnett formula and so could come in for some sensible economies.

gillg57

So, apparently the UK is full of people who just cant be bothered to go to work and prefer to live on benefits. Rubbish! Yes, there are a small number. But it is insulting to suggest it is the majority. Most people in this position are there through no fault of their own. So instead of preaching the moral high ground we would do better to focus on eradicating genuine fraud and remembering that any of us could very quickly be in diffculties if we too lost our jobs. Also, where are all these jobs that people could be doing? Perhaps the stories of job losses in the recession are a myth then! Start with cutting the defence budget and learning to keep our nose out of other countries business.

social_conscience

Forgive my seeming naivety - if at all, but there is so much talk of government cuts to pay the deficit and extra borrowing. I dont see , read or hear anything said about the banks having to pay back the vast sums that got us into this mess. And surely with more bonuses and massive profits the bank are still announcing, why on earth are we the public having to fund ever more ammounts when we funded the bank bail out in the first place. Now we are expected to fund the deficit and extra borrowing as well !! I don't get it. Surely if the banks were propped up so much, if they have profits and such great sums to give bonuses, shouldn't they pay back their prop up's funded by the general public first?

Broley

social conscience wrote: "Forgive my seeming naivety - if at all, but there is so much talk of government cuts to pay the deficit and extra borrowing. I dont see , read or hear anything said about the banks having to pay back the vast sums that got us into this mess."

Unfortunately too many people believe this. The banking fiasco didn't help, obviously, but this Country was in a mess prior to this due to Labours policies. The banks were a convenient smokescreen for Brown, Darling and countless Labour ministers. Even now they are bleating that the figures disclosed by the Coalition Government are false and bloated. This Country, and certain elements within it, needs to wake up and face the facts. We are pretty well stuffed by the previous incompetance of the Labour administration who believed in a world of never never. Borrow more and more for pie in the sky schemes and the paying back will take care of itself. Well now it's time to pay back.

Oneday77

The biggest 2 ways to cut costs are to: -
1) Abolish overtime if it is regularly needed. Employ more staff that cover the overtime shifts in all deparments. That way the Overtime cost become 1x rather than 1.5x or 2x time.
2) All people employed by the goverment directly, by that I mean Civil servants, NHS, Police, Forces, Fire etc should get a paycut. What I hear you cry. Instead base all their Salary on the take home element of their wages. Basically make the Public sector a Tax free earnings zone based on Salary upto tbut not including the current 40% tax band. This would then reduce Employers NI costs and so on.
3) Yes I can't count, neither can the politicians. Reduce waste and making sure the staff are really doing the work they claim and fight pay rises for. How often have you seen council workers having extended tea breaks. Why do traffic lights get replaced to give them new bendy posts. If a building work is commissioned and quoted, why aren't the contractors held to the quote. Scottish parliment building springs to mind.

slummymummyof3

Get rid of free prescriptions in Wales and Scotland.

Give diabetic patients free testing strips so that they can be aware of their elevated blood sugar levels and act upon them - normal blood sugars means much reduced risk of health complications which are very costly to the individual and the nhs.

Stop recommending eating large portions of carbohydrates with each meal to diabetic patients as 'healthy' - it is carbohydrates that elevate blood sugars and therefore complications. Would you give an alcoholic vodka?

Clamp down on companies that supply the NHS, civil service, schools etc with stationery - these companies profiteer hugely from all government departments (lets add another couple of zero's to the invoice they all say)

Get rid of privatised cleaning companies/portering services etc in hospitals and allow the NHS to employ them directly - directed by the ward sister/matron so they are more accountable

Tax 'unhealthy' foods such as takeaways - tobacco has tax applied so why not burgers, fish and chips etc? Obesity rates are increasing significantly as are type two diabetes rates.

Stop child benefit at the second child point to those families claiming other benefits and make them aware that more children does not mean more government handouts!

Reduce the 'quality' of government initiative leaflets - do they really need to be on card? Do they really need stickers included?

There are my starting points!

sulkisu

1. HIP (health in pregnancy payment) - a complete waste of money. Also the £500 maternity payment should be scrapped or at the very least restricted to one payment instead of one payment per pregnancy.
2. Child Trust fund vouchers - with immediate effect.
3. Means test child benefit and restrict it to the first 2 children only.
4. No benefits for those who give up their jobs without a good reason - instead of the pathetic 26 week sanction.
5. Overturn the recent change in policy which now disregards 100% of child support payments for benefit claimants. Ridiculous that a PWC can receive hundreds in child support and still receive full benefits.
6. Introduce a cap on benefits so that no family can claim/receive more than the current minimum wage.
7.Reduce payments to claimants who are unable to work due to alcohol or drug dependency, or make it a condition of receiving supprt that they seek help with their addiction. At the moment there is no requirement on them to seek help, we just keep feeding their addictions.

anjasdad

Why and how do all ok most of the unemployed people in the uk have the latest fashion and I phone?
Why on my last trip to hospital why did I have to ask 6 nhs employees before I found a nurse the other 5 where office staff?
Why despite paying £1000 a year in tax to drive my car that I am also taxed on do I hit about 2 pot holes every 100mtrs?
Why are our forces sent by our politicians under equipped?
When was the last time you seen a bobbie on the beat I used to get collector cards from them?

I could go on but I have to go out and work I need to put some over time in there is a new I phone out and I am sure all the benefit fraudster are working on a way for me to pay for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CUT BENEFITS

worried_jim

Stop all jsa after 6 months.
No more child allowance or tax credits after the second child, its time to show some social responsibility and put a condom on it 'cos we ain't paying for it any longer.
Cap council spending, we don't need to be paying £40k for a weekend play time advisor.

Stop all payments to single mothers. Govt give 12 months notice from today that there will be no special treatment so cross your legs. This will ease the strain on social housing and will also stop generation after generation repeating the same mistakes and clogging up the estates with feral scum.