How would you help George Osborne distribute the cuts in spending?

lovetowinacar

1. Cut public sector pay for all staff earning over £35,000.

2. Means test child benefit

3. Means test winter fuel allowance

4. Second homes taxed on rental income - lets face it lots of people cannot afford a first home let alone a second or third etc - and capital gains tax on profit when sold to be increased.

5. Get rid of huge grant payable to single mums and other income support individuals who return to college on "foundation degrees" - looking at the stats - many drop out and don't bother to finish the course the cost of the drop out students is huge. Our local college "Access course 120 started - 60 ended", 1st year foundation degree 55 started and applied for grants and of the ones that ended many achieved a "D" grade!!!!:rotfl::rotfl: What a waste of money - and still the college are recruiting them with "keep your income support, get a grant and become a student and have a great time" - yes its a real annoyance the amount of money that is wasted !!

6. Encourage people to work by making them better off to do so than sitting on their bottoms - ie reduce income support, rent, fag money etc and increase WTC and CTC to people who work for a living... no one should be better off not working whether family or single person with children

lovetowinacar

bigheadxx wrote: »

I had a leaflet from school today telling me how to make a packed lunch!!!! Do we really need to spend taxpayers money on something like this?

Exactly what a waste - and all the parents at my local school were told that courses would be run to show parents how to go back to basics with cooking!!! Again more money wasted.... The local council estate has so many "schemes" running that a new leaflet is out every week - the children's centre has courses and groups running that cover every single thing that may happen in life "depressed - what should I do", "I have a headache - who should I blame", "women against men" "men against women" but seriously the money spent at the Children's centre is huge

lovetowinacar

A._Badger wrote: »

I said (and I'll type this nice and slowly for you) that I don't see any reason to pay for people to have children. I did not say they should be charged for having them.

Do try to keep up.

I do agree that we should be more responsible for our own children - my brothers wife recently decided she quite like to be single and out on the town every weekend again and discovered that she could kick him out, go on income support, get the mortgage paid and get him to pay maintenance and actually be better off than they were when he was living with them working and supporting them off --- what a crazy society we live in where single mums get more than a working family (add up the mortgage payments, IS, etc etc free school meals etc etc council tax free and work it all out:mad: PS An advisor visiting the children's centre worked it all out for her and even helped her apply for the benefits !!!! what is UK coming to?

chewmylegoff

the largest areas of expenditure are:

1) Welfare - £140bn (including payments to the long term sick and disabled)
2) Health - £120bn
3) Old age pensions - £80bn

I would personally take the axe to all of these in a serious way. However the govt has already said that health will not be cut.

Welfare: just cap the amount that anyone can receive in a year. no more than £15k per family or something like that all in, including housing costs - regardless of how many brats you want to have. exceptions for severely disabled.

Pensions - means test everything, including the state pension. there is no need to be giving money to those pensioners who can afford to support themselves. you could then increase the basic state pension whilst cutting the total pensions budget.

Spartacus_Mills

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Erm ..... 1979

As loathe as I am to side with a Labour bunkerbot but Steve J is correct.

It has simply become received wisdom that the Tories had to clean up a Labour mess in 1979 and this was not the case. The real issue was Labour 4 years earlier had to clean up a Tory mess caused largely by the Barber boom where Tory Chancellor Anthony Barber just printed money which was great but it was also inflationary. As a consequence inflation skyrocketed in the mid seventies (this was not the only cause but it was a major player) and Labour under the shrewd stewardship of Dennis Healey were tackling this. Inflation had halved from its peak in 1975 by the time the Tories took charge, government spending was under control. Healey had been cutting government expenditure since mid 1976. The IMF loan was never touched and was not needed. In todays environment it would never have happened.

Labour had the economy on the right track in 1979. Inflation was coming under control and government spending was coming under control. The real villains of the piece were the Heath Tory government and the brothers for not supporting Labour on pay restraint.

I do not blame Cameron and co for trotting out the line. Most people believe it to be true and it is a powerful reminder of what people tend to remember of the Callaghan administration. However it does not make it true. For example Sunny Jim never said "Crisis, what crisis".

marklv

ash28 wrote: »

The public will be asked how to distribute "once in a generation" public spending cuts as George Osborne sets out plans to tackle Britain's record budget deficit.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7810091/George-Osborne-to-ask-public-how-to-distribute-cuts.html

Is it genuine or just spin?

When the cuts bite will it be, well this is what you asked for?

Target benefits to those really in financial need, not people with £10k or more stashed away.

Mean test ALL benefits, even old age pensions. Those on generous final salary pensions should have the state pension reduced or even removed.

Means test cold weather payments for pensioners - and ALL other payable benefits.

Eliminate child benefit except for the very poorest.

Stop all housing benefit payments to immigrants - from the EU as well outside. Impose a strict limit to all housing benefits, regardless of family size etc.

Increase VISA fees for entry to the UK by at least fourfold.

Reduce the 50% income tax threshold to around £90k per annum.

Increase VAT to 20%.

Establish higher rates of council tax for millionaire mansions.

Align ALL CGT with income tax rates.

Charge criminals for board and lodging while in prison.

The NHS should no longer be free at the point of delivery. Those who can afford it should contribute towards the cost of consultations and operations.

Alan_Cross

To answer you, OP, anyone who can't see that this 'let's consult the public' malarkey is a simple responsibility deflection exercise must be either a few members short of a majority or a paid up Central Office Davealike.

This is just a traditionally Tory, bring-it-on, slash the public sector exercise with a cosmetic coating of Libdemmery and, now, a get-Joe-Public-to-take-the-blame 'consultation'.

Get real and see things for what they are.

wolvoman

chewmylegoff wrote: »

the largest areas of expenditure are:

1) Welfare - £140bn (including payments to the long term sick and disabled)
2) Health - £120bn
3) Old age pensions - £80bn

I would personally take the axe to all of these in a serious way. However the govt has already said that health will not be cut.

Welfare: just cap the amount that anyone can receive in a year. no more than £15k per family or something like that all in, including housing costs - regardless of how many brats you want to have. exceptions for severely disabled.

Pensions - means test everything, including the state pension. there is no need to be giving money to those pensioners who can afford to support themselves. you could then increase the basic state pension whilst cutting the total pensions budget.

Are you mad?
Pensions aren't benefits you know. They are based on people having contributed their whole lives.

How DARE you TAKE peoples' hard earned efforts away from them and give them to people who SQUANDERED and WASTED money through their lives.


I really think this attitude of means testing is pathetic. Means testing is just a way of encouraging reckless gambling, drinking and all other waste.

wolvoman

marklv wrote: »

Target benefits to those really in financial need, not people with £10k or more stashed away.

Mean test ALL benefits, even old age pensions. Those on generous final salary pensions should have the state pension reduced or even removed.

Means test cold weather payments for pensioners - and ALL other payable benefits.

Eliminate child benefit except for the very poorest.

Stop all housing benefit payments to immigrants - from the EU as well outside. Impose a strict limit to all housing benefits, regardless of family size etc.

Increase VISA fees for entry to the UK by at least fourfold.

Reduce the 50% income tax threshold to around £90k per annum.

Increase VAT to 20%.

Establish higher rates of council tax for millionaire mansions.

Align ALL CGT with income tax rates.

Charge criminals for board and lodging while in prison.

The NHS should no longer be free at the point of delivery. Those who can afford it should contribute towards the cost of consultations and operations.

So basically what you're saying is that hard-working epople who better themselves should have to pay a lot more tax and receive nothing from the state (not even healthcare), whilst those that can't be bothered to work hard will be rewarded with lower tax and lots of free state help.

Yes that'll really help us out of recession.

chewmylegoff

wolvoman wrote: »

Are you mad?
Pensions aren't benefits you know. They are based on people having contributed their whole lives.

How DARE you TAKE peoples' hard earned efforts away from them and give them to people who SQUANDERED and WASTED money through their lives.


I really think this attitude of means testing is pathetic. Means testing is just a way of encouraging reckless gambling, drinking and all other waste.

if you can come up with a way of sorting out the deficit which doesn't involve that fabulous breed of "hard working" taxpayers taking it on the chin then i'm all ears.

if you refuse to cut two of the biggest three areas of expenditure (pensions and health) then you're never going to be able to sort the budget deficit out.