What cuts are you prepared to personally suffer to repay the deficit?

carolt

bendix wrote: »

What cuts am I personally prepared to 'suffer' to help deficit reduction? Interesting question. I haven't directly received anything resembling benefits from the state since I gratefully benefited from a student grant in the early 1980s. I'm forever thankful for that.

Since then I haven't had a penny of unemployment benefit, housing benefit and all of the innumerable hundreds of other benefits that have appeared over the last 25 years. I have private medical insurance and have never used the NHS in any capacity since being asked to drop my trousers and cough as a 12 year old boy at school. I am married but have no kids. I currently pay around £55,000 a year income tax and NI, and have suffered recently from both the removal of personal allowances for those earning over £100k a year and also I've just slipped into the 50% tax bracket marginally.

Do I resent the latter two? Not really. Would I have a problem if tax rates increased or the bands were expanded? I wouldn't love it, but I'd put up with it.

What more can I contribute? Higher VAT? Not a problem. I can't decrease what I suck out of the state's coffers because I receive nothing. I can only increase what I contribute.

I have a moral objection to accepting any benefits at all from the state if I can avoid it (obviously things like Police and Defence I can't control). If I was laid off tomorrow, I would not sign on as a matter of principle. If I was sick, I wouldn't use NHS resources. And I have already decided that I will not claim any state pension when that is due - I don't need it, so why take it? The fact that I have paid for it is irrelevant; it is called National Insurance for a reason. You only draw down on an insurance policy when you need to.

All fair points - but you cannot call me greedy and selfish for not wanting to give up cash without being prepared to give up cah yourself.

I take it you have no plans to draw down your state pension when it is due, and plan to repay the full costs of all your education, binmen and all other council cleaning services, roadworks, etc etc plus the child benefit your mother received for you?

If not, then you have/will benefit from public money whether you admit it or not.

So cough up.

Pennywise

I'm prepared (and resigned) to give up probably around 10-20% of my household income in view of the disastrous borrowings the country is suffering. Unless some serious action is taken to deal with the trillion of debt, we may as well all give up now as there won't be a worthwhile future for ourselves and our children if we suffer hyper inflation etc.

For a start, I'd give up tax credits and child benefit/family allowance, neither of which are needed - both just go into our son's bank account anyway.

Then I'd happily accept that the govt scrapped employees NIC and added 10% to income tax instead - making a basic rate of 30% - employees wouldn't notice the change. Only those who are currently "lucky "enough to avoid paying NIC would suffer (ie on investment income, pensions, capital gains, etc). What's the point in pretending that NIC isn't just another tax? Scrapping employee NICS would save a massive amount in administration and bureacracy and bring in shed loads of cash for the govt to go towards paying down its debts. This would badly affect me as most of my income is "NIC-free" but it's a price worth paying!

The thing is that I'd only be happy to do this IF it applied across the board. I'm not going to give up my 10-20% of income if vast numbers of the population didn't suffer equally. If, eg, any section of society remained exempt from the extra 10% income tax, then I'd not be happy at all - if we're all in this together, then fair enough, but certainly not if some are more equal than others!

Really2

carolt wrote: »

All fair points - but you cannot call me greedy and selfish for not wanting to give up cash without being prepared to give up cah yourself.

You are not giving up cash, the government are withdrawing a benefit based on what you earn.

So what exactly are you giving up?

Alan_Cross

carolt wrote: »

All fair points - but you cannot call me greedy and selfish for not wanting to give up cash without being prepared to give up cah yourself.

I take it you have no plans to draw down your state pension when it is due, and plan to repay the full costs of all your education, binmen and all other council cleaning services, roadworks, etc etc plus the child benefit your mother received for you?

If not, then you have/will benefit from public money whether you admit it or not.

So cough up.

Why should anyone 'shut up' when you are asking a 'loaded question'?

Your assumption has swallowed the Tory agenda of the common person now needing to pay the bill for the mess caused by corporate financial greed.

chucky

chucky wrote: »

i'd cut the massive defence budget - it's unnecessary

i'd still cut the defence budget - it's an unjustifiable expense for the UK

ukcarper

I’ll give you one Carol I'll give up my winter fuel payment which is worth just as much to me as CB is to you.

silvercar

Personally, my business has been effected by the recession so profits down= income down, so I've taken my cut. That with the increased VAT that I'll pay, I hope that I don't suffer further cuts.

The only benefit that I've received in the last decade or more is child benefit, I'm happy for that to go (but tbh it was probably going not long after April 2013 anyway). If I don't receive any other benefits there is nothing to cut.

Carol, you are clearly not happy to lose child benefit, so what are you prepared to sacrifice?

chucky

carolt wrote: »

All fair points - but you cannot call me greedy and selfish for not wanting to give up cash

you're not giving up cash - you're receiving a benefit that the state gives you for your children.

it's not your right, you are lucky to get it and should be very grateful to have received it.

you are as bad as the benefit scroungers.

carolt

Alan_Cross wrote: »

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

I would not lower myself to consider joining the ranks of the moronic crowd in the square mile who think that City trading actually requires any talent or intellect.

Their antics are well documented and it remains to be seen whether their chummies in the Tory government will actually do anything about them.

Personally, I won't be holding my breath, Cable or no Cable...

My point was and still is, even though the sarcasm appears to have been lost on you, that I shall be prepared to make 'sacrifices' as and when I see the City has done it first...

I agree with your principle - but unfortunately was not asked whether or not I personally felt responsible for the financial crisis and whether I wanted my hard-earned taxes to go on bailing out the banks so that bankers like Generali could trouser huge bonuses (announced today - an average £70,000 bonus this year on top of salary for every one of the 100,000 employees who work in the City - just to put the child benefit into context).

I also was not asked whether I wanted my child benefit payment removed.

I am being ever so nice in asking people to name their sacrifice of choice - I didn't gt that luxury.

FATBALLZ

carolt wrote: »

All fair points - but you cannot call me greedy and selfish for not wanting to give up cash without being prepared to give up cah yourself.

That's not a fair argument, if somebody has always contributed their fair share or more and withdrawn their fair share or less at all times I think they are perfectly entitled to label as greedy/selfish anyone who doesn't contribute enough or takes out more than they reasonably should.