50 word Moneyfesto - Small changes for a big difference 2013

Kajimba

Allow MPs a pass valid on any public transport for standard class.

If they want first class, taxis or car hire they pay out of their salary (not on expenses).

Saves money & we'd probably soon see better train and bus time tables and more capacity during peak times.

Barbarian

Banks and investors should have the last demands on liquidated company assets, not the first. By law a liquidator should be required to refund any customers who have not received goods or services, then pay suppliers who have not yet been paid before distributing assets to any other creditors.

Mechelle

This would not affect existing families, but child benefit should only be granted for the first 2 children (from a given date in a years time). This aims to prevent people from having large families if they are relying on benefits to do so. Introduce 'London weighting'; consider the total household income, not of one person in the family, to make things fairer across the board.

ListysDad

Create a road map committing to putting empathy at the heart of government starting with central government.

By doing this:
- we begin to facilitate the real big society.
- there will be fewer instances of 'common sense' type failures
- rules will begin to be interpreted as they should instead of being applied carte blanch

Whoops there goes the Pink Pigs Squadron...

Barbarian

Bahhumbug wrote: »

I frequently see non-disabled people parking in disabled parking spaces as they know they can get away with it.

Please stop this!

We are frequently forced to park 'normally' and HAVE to pull the car half out of the space while we do the car-to-chair transfer.

I challenged a young driver about parking in a disabled space at a supermarket and when I got a mouthful of abuse I replied: "I just hope you never have to live with disability". I then went to customer services and said "What's your policy regarding the enforcement of disabled parking?" To give them their due they sent a security man to speak to the driver and made him to move to a normal space.

sicandar

Enforce minimum wage laws.

A lot of trouble is caused by low paid foreign workers. In order to compete companies abiding the law either go bust or are in dire straights.

Employers should be fined large sums if found to be paying less than minimum wage. We should be trying to catch them actively if they break the law.

Barbarian

Charge manufacturers a levy equal to the waste disposal cost of their products. A customer who recycles would receive a cash-back. This would make manufacturers choose more eco-friendly products and packaging and encourage more customers to recycle. It might even encourage youngsters to collect items for recycling to get extra pocket money.

Bahhumbug

We can all sign up to online deals, but it is inexplicably complicated when it comes to cancelling a service once a contract has expired (or is due to expire)????

You ALWAYS have to phone and they argue / drag out the call for as long as they can (mobile phone companies particularly)...

Bahhumbug

Mechelle wrote: »

This would not affect existing families, but child benefit should only be granted for the first 2 children (from a given date in a years time). This aims to prevent people from having large families if they are relying on benefits to do so. Introduce 'London weighting'; consider the total household income, not of one person in the family, to make things fairer across the board.

I have often thought this, it would finally bring an end to 'career moms'. This way, should someone decide to have more children, it would be their responsibility to provide (which it should be anyway... and is in most of the rest of the world!)

Steve_the_Spec

This should be implemented as part of saving measure to reduce government imposed burden on household running costs, to effectively give each household additional money to spend.
The majority of this cost could be offset against savings made from ceasing the DTI enforcement branch as well as cost associated with running the TV licensing scheme, databases etc