to wonder what cuts YOU would make?

[jade80]

I keep reading threads about how a, b or c should not, under any circumstances have their funding cut. So, given that cuts have to be made because of ongoing overspending in recent decades, what would you, personally, choose to take the money away from?

I would cut pen pushers. My boyfriend is in the police and he says the amount of people employed by them to just do paperwork etc is ridiculous. So much of it is unnecessary and it must be the same in all the public service sectors I'm sure.

management in the NHS

it used to be:

sisters in charge of wards &

A nurse manager over several areas.

Now there are managers, deputy managers, then each of them have a PA

Military spending is being cut already.

Public service middle management is one of the things the government hopes will be cut, but of course the people deciding where the cuts fall are the very people who need to be cut!

I would time-limit benefits for those who are able to work, and give a weighted preference to EU workers in all UK job applications. Impose punitive offshore charges on any company who wants to base themselves in UK markets but who has call centres/manufacturing outside of Europe. The sooner the influx of cheap non-EU labour stops, and the jobs are brought back, the sooner we start working again.

The majority of UK jobs created in the last 5 years have gone to non-UK workers, while we sit on the dole. It needs to stop.

Wankers bonuses.

I would do away with school 'Business Managers' and have all school budgets controlled at LEA level and employ someone competent enough to manage such a high budget. As it is schools are financially managed by inept people who cannot get a job in the private sector, and spend the schools money in a ridiculous manner.

I would cut the rule which entitles forces children to be sent to private schools (so the taxpayer pays their private school fees), thereby keeping many useless private schools open.

I would make the winter fuel allowance means tested.

Raise the retirement age to 75.

I temped at the Highways Agency and Manchester Council back in 2003/4. Never have I witnessed so much waste (time and money) or people pissing around in the workplace (highways agency in particular). My line manager used to have a post-lunch nap (not on lunch hour) lying across several office chairs.
On the plus side for me at the time, none of my timesheets were ever checked. And in one mcr council job, my manager told me to claim for time spent filling in job applications for permanent council positions.
So yes, I'd cut that!

Stop people having to fill in the same forms multiple times every time the slightest thing changes or different dept wants info - would save a large forest worth of paper just going by personal experience!

I'd cut the billions sent to th EU and the climate change budget. Make certain benefits means tested and reduce the length of time Income support is paid to 3 years.

Increase MP's wage then stop all expenses so they can't -commit benefit fraud- claim loads extra.

And to raise extra funds put George Osbourne and Tony Blair in stocks and charge a quid to throw rotten food at them!

I wouldn't cut anything. I would increase the income tax on high earners by 10%.

the first thing I would do is look at MP's expenses, I would cut the level of managers in the NHS, take away their company cars, and outsource things like stationary. I would get rid of all temporary staff and employ staff that is much cheaper, or use bank staff.

That would be a start.

I think even basic rate income tax should be higher. People are right to expect good public services but they should be prepared to pay for them.

Civil list

Middle management in most public services

Make sure that Very Rich actually pay the tax they owe - if nobody used loopholes/off-shore accounts etc tax-rises would not be necessary. More prison sentences for tax-evaders. Less small-time crooks in prisons.

Invest more into schools/kid's activities/family support

Get back to a sensible level of 'Elf&Safety: nobody wants to see factory workers lose limbs in unsafe machinery, do let people be responisble for their own minor trips and falls.

Un-privatise utilities etc.

Oh, if only I was Master and Commander of Everything...

Increase top earners tax levels

Winter fuel Allowance should be means tested, and scrapped for pensioners not even living in the UK.

Those who want to return to work following raising children, should have benefits stopped once the first pay-packet arrives, not the minute they start work.

I think councils should employ someone who's job it is to make minor savings from everything.

Indeed I would make their salary dependent on it and pay them an escalating bonus on how much they saved.

I'm imagining a really cool job done by someone who really cares about the environment and walks round turning lights and printers off at the end of the day. Someone who shops around for stationery so it is cheaper, someone who organises desks so that those who are at them constantly are kept warm.

Can you tell I want this job. I've seen so much wastage in local govt and mod that I think lots of thrifty mumsnetters would want a job like this.

Close inheritance tax loophole.

Means test winter fuel allowance and the state pension.

I would cut the EU budget and the over seas aid budget

We are told our finances are as bad as Greece, so why are we paying so much to the eU

Anyone who has been to Poland, Hungry or any otther former Eastern block country that has recently joined the EU will know every where you look there are roads, airports, railway stations being built using EU funding

My brothers' wife is Polish and her family are farmers, who get a fortune from the EU, her brother (who bought his son an apartment for his 18th) was put through a HGV course for only £100, the rest subsidised by the EU

How about sending bailiffs into the banks!

The Royal Family.

Bus passes/winter fuel allowance from 65 rather than 60. My Dad was still working f/t at 60. He & my Grandad now on good pension & little outgoings yet get extras where poorer incomes don't.

Consultants. They are paid vast salaries, even if working in the public sector and not always to any purpose.
Trident.
Energy saving measures across government - like what LaurieFairy suggested only on a bigger scale.
The Olympics if it wasn't a bit late for that now...

Means testing winter fuel allowance/ cold weather payments/ free bus passes etc. for the rich pensioners who seem destined to escape scot free from most of the cuts.

I have worked for a few different councils and other public sector bodies and I have never seen all this bollocks people talk about first class travel. I can't even remember the last time I went to a meeting where tea and coffee were provided. The vast majority of people I have met have worked extremely hard and had a strong commitment to serving the public. The piss takers should (and sometimes are) be disciplined. People who think the level of cuts which are being made can somehow be achieved by treating public sector staff like shit don't know what they're talking about.

I would raise taxes and make tax avoidance a criminal offence.

I'd properly renationalise the railways and cut out the subsidies. I'd stop all 'internal market' activity in public services, including the NHS. I'd allocate a set level of school funding per pupil at a national level. I'd stop having academies and 'choice' for some people, all schools would get the same funding. I'd enforce budget limits on regeneration projects which would have to be approved by referenda. I would stop use of consultants by ensuring any consultancy project above £X (amount to depend on level of government), had to be personally approved by a politican. If their name and re-election is on the line, they will enforce a reduction in consultancy spend. I'd freeze all major public IT infrastructure projects until the business case for them is properly reviewed. I would make a legal change to allow public bodies to get out of PFI contracts which are crucifying them. I'd stop trident.

I would have a cross-party review of the benefits system and include the voluntary and private sectors in the review. Then after we'd all thought about it properly, I'd see if any cuts could be made.

I'd also stop trying to cut the deficit at such a rapid rate and invest in major infrastructure, ensuring companies awarded contracts were forced to take on apprentices to train as they complete the contracts. I would make offering apprenticeships in really significant numbers a condition of any government contract.

I'm so impressed no-one's said overseas aid. I thought it would be top of the list.

"Cutting the military" all sounds very nice and fluffy in theory, but in practice of course it would mean a lot of unemployed soldiers.

The media, in the current climate, would LOVE to spin that as "Government cuts throw thousands of young men (mainly) on the scrapheap."

I don't think overseas aid should be cut, but am a bit that we're going to put a lot of our own people into poverty through no fault of their own, while increasing payments to other countries to raise their people out of poverty. I think we should do the second, but to do the first as well just gives ammunition to the bloody Daily Mail and BNP.

Although, actually, the DM will be in a quandry as they hate 'scroungers' but also hate 'foreigners'. Who will they decide to hate more?