How the Government could save some money?

[PistachioTiramisu]

If the Government are looking to take money from somewhere else to fund one of their pet schemes, may I suggest that they consider removing the £10 Christmas bonus currently paid to pensioners? It was introduced in 1972 and at the time the weekly pension was £6.75 so it must have seemed like a nice windfall, and was originally intended to cover the cost of a modest Christmas Dinner. It now seems like a bit of an insult - what does £10 buy these days - and I can't believe any pensioner would actually be deprived if they didn't receive it!

To put it into perspective, there are about 13 million pensioners in the UK, so this would save the Government £130 Million a year!

im not sure there are any easy places. I wasn’t aware of the pensioners Xmas bonus, but I can’t think that will be popular to remove.

Another unpopular one… so I have a thyroid disorder, will do for life. I get my thyroid meds for free on the NHS as they are deemed essential for life-great. Weirdly.. this means that I don’t have to pay for ANY prescriptions! I was surprised when I found out.

Thyroid meds yes but why does this mean that the rest are free for life? I do pay for any other prescriptions I need as I feel bad otherwise. How much money would it save if others like me got their essential meds covered but had to pay for the rest?

The saving could be spread to help others who have conditions and need essential meds that strangely are not free for them on NhS. I’m sure I read inhalers are not free for asthma sufferers? Crazy. Just an idea.

The NHS is itself just a huge gennerator of wasted money wholly inefficent. So many ways to save money but theynever will.

The problem is if they try and take anything anyway from pensioners there is such an outcry they can't do it.
I am a pensioner and I agree they should get rid of the £10 bonus, the triple lock and the winter fuel allowance should be looked at again. I would much prefer for more funding to be reallocated to families with children
But it's political suicide to try and do it

Instead of keep saying we need to take this off you and that off them I’d like to start hearing some talk about growth . It’s all a spiral of taking off people and we need to grow the economy .

@PistachioTiramisu

While I dont disagree with the principle, speaking as someone in their 60s who this would affect in the not too distant future, £130 million is small change down the back of the sofa in terms of government budgets.
It would keep the NHS going for about 15 minutes