What Goverment spending would you cut? poll discussion
Comments
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Firstly, the benefits system needs a lot of work to weed out those spongers who have no intentions to do a days work in their lives. Single mothers who are under 18 and got pregnant just for the benefits should be forced to move back in with their own parents/grandparents.
All luxuries should be stripped from prisons. Why should we fund the highlife for the murderers, thugs and general scum who inhabit them (I'm not saying all prisoners are the scum of the earth, but certainly a large proportion of them are).
I'd also look at doing something to prevent this wasteful, end of the financial year splurge that all government departments have to ensure they get the same (or even better) budgets for the following year.
Highways agency etc. Why do we need cheverons everywhere, when a single dotted white line has done us so well for years.
I'm going to stop there or I'll be here all night
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I stared at the options for a good couple of minutes and couldn't make myself vote for any of them. Just shows what a difficult job the politicians have ahead of them.
I'm disappointed in the large proportion wanting to cut overseas aid. Compared to the plight of many developing countries, our difficulties seem a little trivial really.Apparently I'm 10 years old on MSE. Happy birthday to me...etc0 -
I am a benefit fraud investigator for the past 12 years and from my experience I can state that fraud within the benefit system is rampant. If this Government is serious about reducing the massive public sector bill which the last Government ( and previous Governments) have accumulated they must address the fraud in the welfare system. Despite what the last Government has claimed in that they had reduced the fraud in the system I and my colleagues in local authorities and the DWP would challenge this. I agree with the comments of some of the other contributors to this post and it's insulting to those hard working, taxpaying members of the public who witness day in day out benefit claimants blatantly stealing money from taxpayers. Remember it's the taxpayer who funds the public sector not the Government ! So here's what I would do:
Abolish Child Benefit (There's Child Tax Credits which is means tested)
Abolish Job Centres and replace them with Employment agencies run by the private sector and reward the agencies by the number of claimants they place in employment.
Stop single parents on benefit from being given more money every time they have another child.
Make all benefits taxable.0 -
I'd go for the NHS too, there's a lot of waste.
There's one catagory missing....Ministerial cars and jollys.
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A. Defence (military spending - £35bn)
Get our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, more to save lives than save money, they shouldn't be there
B. Education (schools and universities - £32bn)
Employ someone like Martin Lewis to cut waste and you could save a fair bit.
C. Environment (waste and pollution - £5bn)
Think saving massively on this would be difficult
D. Health (the NHS £124bn)
The budget should NOT be reduced, the cost of running the NHS will always increase year on year and above inflation. Look at what drugs/treatments were available when they NHS was formed, compare that to what is available now. Have a National Health Service and you can't do it on the cheap. That said waste could be reduced massively but it should be put back into frontline services to improve the health service not cut from it.
E. Housing £4bn
Don't know enough about it but the size of the budget I think big cuts would be hard
F. Law & Order (police and courts - £15bn)
Leave well alone.
G. Overseas aid (money to the developing world – £12bn)
People who can afford to and wish to donate money to overseas aid should do so with their own money, the Government should not decide this for us
H. Social Protection (state pension and benefits - £171 bn)
CUT CUT CUT
People who genuinely cannot find work should receive help (though they should have to do community service work to receive it) and the genuinely disabled obviously need help but there are far too many people who cannot be arsed. Social protection costs as much as education, law and order and the health service combined, it beggars belief.
I . Transport (roads & railways - £11bn)
Considering the amount we pay in tax to use the roads any cuts should just be to waste.
If you don't like what I say slap me around with a large trout and PM me to tell me why.
If you do like it please hit the thanks button.0 -
NorthWalesGraham wrote: »Make all benefits taxable.
What is the point of that?
You might as well just cut the size of the benefit and not tax it, otherwise you are giving someone money then taking part of it back again incurring admin costs in the process.If you don't like what I say slap me around with a large trout and PM me to tell me why.
If you do like it please hit the thanks button.0 -
(oh no sorry, I am entitled to 25% off council tax as I live on my own, even though it’s based on 2 adults sharing so shouldn’t that mean I should get 50% discount!!??)
Its based on 2 sharing but council tax is 50% property and 50% for the occupiers - a single occ gets a discount of 1/2 of 50% or 25%.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Exam fees are an ever growing expense for schools. The currrent fashion for modular exams means students take more and more exams at a higher and higher cost each year. Examining boards used to be universities but are now private companies. Returning to the old system of exams being set by universities and take once at the end of the course would be cheaper.0
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I would make all benefits means tested ie does the likes of the Beckhams or Rooneys need Child Benefit? Similarly Winter Fuel Payment - alot of pensioners are sitting in their own homes they own with £100k+ in the bank. My friend also works in Benefit Fraud & can agree with a previous post that false claims are rife - even those aged 75+ are at it, failing to declare all savings & then claiming for Council Tax Benefit. I also know of someone who inherited £130k 4 years & is claiming everything under the sun...free school dinners,free laptops,working & child tax creds,child benefit etc etc & yet has paid the mortgage off has money in the bank & has failed to declare another cash in hand income for doing a friends books!! Info between agencies needs to be shared to really stamp this out.0
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