25% cut in public sector - the biggest headline?

isplumm

vivatifosi wrote: »

The unanswered question with the VAT increase and businesses is the impact it will have on the flat rate scheme. When the rate temporarily went down to 15%, my flat rate was less beneficial. Wouldn't surprise me to see the same happen when it goes up.

Hi,

I am in the same position - when the last govt dropped vAT by 2.5%, they only dropped the FRS by 1%, so I actually ended up paying more VAT!!

Mark

marklv

hugheskevi wrote: »

The cut is a real terms cut of 25% over 4 years.

Over that period, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility think RPI will increase by 14%, so that means a cut in nominal expenditure of about 10% over 4 years that has to be found.

And the cut is in terms of budgets, not staff.

Salaries are already frozen for two years. Add to that not upgrading IT, not recuiting new staff, an early retirement exercise and not increasing salaries by much in the two years after the freeze ends should deliver those savings fairly easily without the need for any redundencies. I think it is too early to say there will be definate job losses at this stage.

There will be some job losses, mainly in admin areas where departments merge - and I'm sure there will be some mergers. Many Quangos will vanish and be absorbed into the main departments.

A._Badger

vivatifosi wrote: »

The unanswered question with the VAT increase and businesses is the impact it will have on the flat rate scheme. When the rate temporarily went down to 15%, my flat rate was less beneficial. Wouldn't surprise me to see the same happen when it goes up.

My suspicion is that the flat rate is manipulated to the government's advantage, relying on the fact that few journalists would recognise a VAT return if it were set on fire and stuffed down their underpants.

dharm999

amcluesent wrote: »

It's a mechanism to start the spin that, regrettably, the NHS can't be ring fenced when it's gobbling up £124 billion every year. I.e. Do you really want to sack local bobbies when a GP is trousering £100K plus.

THe NHs is starting to feel the pinch as well. We do work for a PCT in the North, and they have made 10 people redundant who worked in back office functions. The people we deal with are saying everything is being looked at, including front line activities. The whole 'NHS will be ring fenced' is a myth, the cuts are starting to happen. I dont work in the NHS, so have no vested interest in it, either way. We will see cuts in the NHS, they will not be well publicised, to avoid the political fallout.

dharm999

marklv wrote: »

There will be some job losses, mainly in admin areas where departments merge - and I'm sure there will be some mergers. Many Quangos will vanish and be absorbed into the main departments.

Dont get me started on quangos. I was on the train back from London this week, and met a very nice lady from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. This quango is the body that nurses and midwifes register to, as far as I understood their role. However they dont monitor standards of teaching or quality of work. That's done by another quango. Now why isnt it one organisation that looks after both aspects of this, surely they fit together very nicely? She also told me about how they are looking to move mursing qualifications from diplomas to degrees, why? Makes no sense to me at all, just more people at universities clocking up huge debts while they study. Madness.

Yorkie1

robin_banks wrote: »

Well over half the costs are salary related, so it is inevitable that some jobs losses are going to go.

With regard to salary increases it is only the inflationary increases that are being frozen. Staff that are on spine points will continue to get thier annual increments till they get to the top of the pay scale.
This seems to have been convieniently forgotten.

Conclusion: you want to cut by 25%, posts will need to be cut, and a lot of them. Till you get to a point where posts cannot be cut any further. I doubt Osborne has the scope to cut posts in HMRC for example, they've already lost 20,000 in the last 4 years.

It's not true that staff will move up spine points - we had this confirmed this week.

Staff currently earning under £21K will receive (at least) a consolidated £250 pay rise over 2 years, that's the only pay rise anyone will receive.

In my department we lost 5 of 25 people in an early exit scheme earlier this year. But there's no money now to pay for more of those schemes, so staff cuts have to be done through natural wastage and the recruitment freeze, and poor performance management (no problem with that).

Old_Slaphead

dharm999 wrote: »

THe NHs is starting to feel the pinch as well. We do work for a PCT in the North, and they have made 10 people redundant who worked in back office functions. The people we deal with are saying everything is being looked at, including front line activities. The whole 'NHS will be ring fenced' is a myth, the cuts are starting to happen. I dont work in the NHS, so have no vested interest in it, either way. We will see cuts in the NHS, they will not be well publicised, to avoid the political fallout.

As I understand it the total NHS expenditure will be ringfenced but there will be cuts & efficiency savings targeted in many areas so that other additiona spending can be made elsewhere in the service

tomterm8

The thing about the NHS budget being 'ring fenced' is, as I understand it, they will have a slight increase beyond CPI. But medical inflation has normally, for the last couple of decades, been substantially higher than CPI in most of the developed world... this means, in practice, that just holding the NHS budget to an increase in real terms would be quite a historical achievement. Thatcher didn't do that, and off the top of my head I can't think of any modern British politician who has restricted the NHS budget to that extent.

butterfly72

dharm999 wrote: »

Dont get me started on quangos. I was on the train back from London this week, and met a very nice lady from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. This quango is the body that nurses and midwifes register to, as far as I understood their role. However they dont monitor standards of teaching or quality of work. That's done by another quango. Now why isnt it one organisation that looks after both aspects of this, surely they fit together very nicely? She also told me about how they are looking to move mursing qualifications from diplomas to degrees, why? Makes no sense to me at all, just more people at universities clocking up huge debts while they study. Madness.

Umm don't get me started on the NMC, the professional body that charges me to £76 a year to continue working as a nurse. And what do I get for this? Nothing. They just check I've worked the required hours and done so many hours training a year. My trust could do this!! Oh I get a glossy magazine occasionally too and professional guidlines that tell me to be kind and trustworthy. Oh please. :mad:!

Re the diploma/degree training. Diploma students get a bursary.. i'm not sure how much but I think its about 6K a year. over 50% of students drop out before the end of the course, surely theres money to be saved there?

Being a nurse I'm all for all degree, a workfore that is able to use their brain to deliver care is better for patients. (contrary to popular belief, having a degree does not mean you spend less time with the pts or are not so caring or too posh to wash!!) I'm starting a masters course in sept and believe me I'm a brilliant caring nurse! BTW, the NHS are funding this for me. I'll be sponsored and get a wage of 22K but every penny of that will be put to good use and the care I give will be more informed and advanced!

marklv

dharm999 wrote: »

Dont get me started on quangos. I was on the train back from London this week, and met a very nice lady from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. This quango is the body that nurses and midwifes register to, as far as I understood their role. However they dont monitor standards of teaching or quality of work. That's done by another quango. Now why isnt it one organisation that looks after both aspects of this, surely they fit together very nicely? She also told me about how they are looking to move mursing qualifications from diplomas to degrees, why? Makes no sense to me at all, just more people at universities clocking up huge debts while they study. Madness.

I agree - nursing is a vocation, not a profession. Before long you'll need a degree to grill burgers at MacDonald.