Will the govenment spending review be much less painful than we are led to believe?

bendix

ILW wrote: »

Or

If there are no diversity officers, on £30k salaries.

If there are no civil servants getting 3 years redundancy pay.

If there are no workshy families getting £100k per year housing benefits.

If it is decided not to pay extra benefits to alkies and druggies.

If we stop paying benefits to people earning £60k pa.

I would be perfectly happy with that

PS Please feel free to add to the list of unfair and wasteful spending that has been built up over the last decade.

Add to that the wonderful story in the ES last night, that over 1 in 10 police officers are off sick or unavailable for duty at any one time due to health reasons.

When asked to comment, some bureaucrat suggested they were pleased the record in the police was comparable to OTHER PUBLIC SECTOR bodies.

You couldn't make it up.

Old_Slaphead

bendix wrote: »

Add to that the wonderful story in the ES last night, that over 1 in 10 police officers are off sick or unavailable for duty at any one time due to health reasons.

When asked to comment, some bureaucrat suggested they were pleased the record in the police was comparable to OTHER PUBLIC SECTOR bodies.

You couldn't make it up.

Sounds rubbish - figures for sickness absence across the whole of the public sector are around 4% or 8 days a year. If 1 in 10 police are off that's 10% more than DOUBLE the average.

petebates26

Yes, no doubt they're talking up the extent of the cuts and they won't be anywhere near as bad

A 20% pay cut across the board would put many of the admin grades on below minimum wage.

When the research is done, there may be more people in the public sector than we need, there are certainly contracts to suppliers that could be changed, there are processes that could be made more cost effective - but the constant whining on here that all public servants are overpaid and lazy is wearing a bit thin, because it's simply not the case.

I work in the public sector and I wish I could find one of these jobs that people are always slating - being paid top dollar for doing nothing. As it is, I work very hard for a salary well below the national average - and work an extra 20 hours a week in a pub to give myself a decent standard of living.

If you did a bit of research to back up some of your claims about the public sector, you'd realise that 'across the board' won't work - because the problems with efficiency and value for money aren't 'across the board'.

tomterm8

No, reserve your seat in the bunker and bring all the beans you can carry

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The Audit Commission is being scrapped. Thats a 100% cut of 2,300 jobs.

How many of the jobs are getting shifted around into a new quango?

Blacklight wrote: »

Thinking back to the budget and all the talk of the tax hikes, CGT crippling every landlord in the country, scrapping NI and lumping it into one tax, etc. None of it was as bad as all the talk in the press. In fact I remember being quite pleased that day about how much more tax I'd have to pay, as it was much less than I expected.

Is the same now true of the austerity measures due to be announced this Autumn? Will there be 40% cuts in front line services and 600,000 public sector workers unemployed by April 2011? Or will we end up feeling like we've all had a lucky escape again?

I do not think people can assume its going to be a one spending review thing... I think we are looking at a more gradual process than that, lasting the better part of two decades. They are going to have a few headline changes, but the real work is more slow and grinding than that. So, initially it will be better than expected, but it is going to go on so long that it becomes the new normal.

ILW

petebates26 wrote: »

A 20% pay cut across the board would put many of the admin grades on below minimum wage.

When the research is done, there may be more people in the public sector than we need, there are certainly contracts to suppliers that could be changed, there are processes that could be made more cost effective - but the constant whining on here that all public servants are overpaid and lazy is wearing a bit thin, because it's simply not the case.

I work in the public sector and I wish I could find one of these jobs that people are always slating - being paid top dollar for doing nothing. As it is, I work very hard for a salary well below the national average - and work an extra 20 hours a week in a pub to give myself a decent standard of living.

If you did a bit of research to back up some of your claims about the public sector, you'd realise that 'across the board' won't work - because the problems with efficiency and value for money aren't 'across the board'.

You may work hard, but are your sure what you do needs doing?

Thrugelmir

tomterm8 wrote: »

How many of the jobs are getting shifted around into a new quango?

None as the work performed will be outsourced and will be tendered for. As with Company audits for example.

Procrastinator333

Thrugelmir wrote: »

None as the work performed will be outsourced and will be tendered for. As with Company audits for example.

What company audit is being outsourced? Are you referring to financial audit? That isn't being outsourced. Just look at the fee revenue generated by the top 100 accountancy firms:

http://www.accountancyage.com/resources/top50

petebates26

Yes, no doubt they're talking up the extent of the cuts and they won't be anywhere near as bad

ILW - in my case, yes I'm sure what I do needs doing. As I said in my post, 'there are processes that could be made more cost effective' - and I'd include in that assumtion that they could be made more cost effective by scrapping them entirely.

So, if something doesn't need doing, stop doing it. Don't carry on doing it and pay 20% less for it!

And that's not the decision of the public servants - so get off our backs. It's the decision of the governement, so if you want to see real change, vote for someone else next time! :rotfl:

StevieJ

Yes, no doubt they're talking up the extent of the cuts and they won't be anywhere near as bad

Thrugelmir wrote: »

None as the work performed will be outsourced and will be tendered for. As with Company audits for example.

OK, what is the difference? apart from the profit mark up that will be now included. BTW most major companies have both internal and external audits.

bendix

petebates26 wrote: »

And that's not the decision of the public servants - so get off our backs. It's the decision of the governement, so if you want to see real change, vote for someone else next time! :rotfl:

That's exactly what many of us did this time, and we're delighted to see that they are promising real change right now.

No need to wait till next time; just need to wait until the spending review in October.