Popular cuts and popular taxes

[jollydiane]

Can we think of anything which we could agree on?

1. The national lottery is a type of tax, but nobody is forced to pay it and we all like the thought of winning a million pounds so lets increase the tax up on this.

1. Winter Fuel allowance. This is scary for all governments but it cannot be fair for higher rate tax payers to receive this benefit, scrap this allowance they managed to do this for Child Tax Credits so it cannot be that hard.

1. When I went to Turkey I had to pay for a £10 Visa to get into the country, lets have the same here for tourists. After all many of our best tourist attractions are free any way so its not much to ask.

1. Can we scrap the free swimming for over 50, would it really put the over 50s off swimming if they had to pay a few pounds?

1. How is it that so many big projects go so wrong, e.g. NHS IT system, what system do we have that allowed this to happen?

1. There was talk by the government that if a pensioner paid £8500 they would have all their care paid for and would not have to sell their home. Although I have not heard much about this I cannot think this would ever be affordable.

1. Do we really need Trident are there better alternatives?

If we can agree then perhaps we can give this to our MP's or let Ed and David know we have solved their problems

Ok over to you

If the Guardian are guilty of the same or a similar thing then I would still like the loopholes closed so that they - and everyone else - have to pay the taxes.

The women in my family live anywhere from 94 - 99 so far so that's over 30 years of free bus travel lol.

Also the BBC I love it but it really needs reform their are so many news readers surly whith so many now with media studies degrees we can't hire some that don't cost us so much their all on about 90k a year for pitys sake then this move to salford how the he'll much is that gonna cost

So anytime anything happens in the capital who is going to cover it to be fair salford is not know for news

Agree with education for 2 year olds but they need to
Sort out the cost of childcare and get some help for
People somehow.

We are not harping on about old people, but there are some old people who still work/ are very wealthy/ who still get a lot of things from aged 60. With an ever ageing population these things should surely be linked with retirement age and not a random 60??

Jolly I am afraid that is never going to happen tony b sorted the gps with a sweet deal in the 90s which is why gps no longer work saturdays,evenings or are on call and for more money no less

They got more money for less work many gps are getting paid more than hospital doctors who do shifts and are on call

The guardian has a vested intrest in deflecting on this issue

The page I pointed to is an infographic, it just breaks down government spend in an easy to see way.

But you didn't read that before kicking off, did you maypole?

Not kicking off just saying babe :)

They lobe to talk about others who are not paying tax it be nice for them too tell the public why they are not paying theirs

News isn't moving to Salford maypole. It's breakfast and sport. Childrens is going to Glasgow. Its a good thing, spreading money round the regions and cutting the cost of doing everything in London where everything from floorspace to transport is more expensive.

But the thing I pointed to is just a breakdown of where the government spends its money, it has nothing to do with tax avoidance.

Here it is again

The government should provide the bare minimum by way of services and provisions, it should be enough to get by and no more, everything else you should have to self fund but if you need help you should have to go through a rigorous application process to get help.

I'm very pro the changes and I have many many family members in the public sector who agree. We cannot carry on at this rate of expenditure so it's either whack tax up or make serious welfare cuts and cuts to luxuries like bus passes, health care etc.

I'm also pro scrapping parts of the NHS - or at least part privatising large swathes of it - it's not sustainable at current levels. Care provision should fall back to the community and the families unless the family poses a risk to a vunerable person.

I personally do not like the idea of working my arse off to my mid 70's so the baby boomers can retire at 60 and 65 on bumper pensions because they had the luxury of signing an old contract and the luxury of buying property when it was cheap.

Yes I am aware that is a very unpopular rant so i'm hiding behind my bunker.

Maypole - there must be a way, I called my dentist and they said I could pay £16 and see a dentist straight away. I'm not suggesting that I'm more important that anyone else its just it is so difficult to see a doctor if you work full time in a place which is not near your doctors. I'm sure I'm not alone.

I would reduce the police to 5 or 6 forces and standardise their procurement.

I think free bus travel for the over-60s is a bit of a problem. The buses around us are often full of non-payers. DS couldn't get to work one day in the summer because the bus was full.

I don't think anything should ever be free. An OAP fare is fine, and not hard to administer.

Public sector procurement of services is hilarious. Once a supplier has a contract in place they can charge whatever they like and you cannot go elsewhere because it breaks the terms of the contract! Millions could be saved by ditching those bloody tie in contracts.

mindthegappp round here OAP's cannot travel at peak time unless they pay.

Whatmworry, what a useful diagram thank you. It clearly shows the areas that we have to focus on.

Clamp down on tax avoidance by corporations and the rich. Then we wouldn't need to cut services.

NearlyMrs - I don't work the the public sector but I am shocked that contracts can be changed like that. If I ran the NHS I would be looking at how they buy their stock. For example to they use labelled brands, or buy in bulk across trust to improve the discount fro suppliers?

grovel also i would like to add that i hard some figure that majority of police are on shift on Monday and during the day

wtf that is not the hours criminals keep they need to do the workings out when the most crime is committed and staff accordingly my bet weekends and night time

also a fitness tests their are some right fat bastards that could chase a baby let alone a young lad its in our own interests to have a fit police foes in my view they should be army fit or made to sit in the back office with the paperwork

dont know how many police shows i watched were the lad has got away just because they have some fat bobby who cant keep up

I'm very pro inheritance tax. I'd lower tax free allowance and increase the rate. I've always thought on death was the least bad time to be taxed as, frankly, you're beyond caring. But people get so hung up on passing their wealth on to the next generation. They've been managing happily without it so far why do they need it so desperately now?

The most popular cut would be the benefits. Most people seem to agree that something must be done about them. Although no one can agree which benefits and how much :)

I'd pull our troops out of Afghanistan. According to that diagram that is costing us 3.7 bn a year.

Ghoul (like the name btw) I agree this is generally a good time to tax someone.

Does anyone know about the £8500 fee and then a person's long term care is paid for. I'm sure it was on one of those TV political debates - I didn't dream it did I? I'm sure this would quickly become too expensive.

ghoul i am with you there. lower allowance and higher rate for inheritance. especially now when there is expectation that the older generation care must be provided by the state and not the heirs...

I would hate to see WFA scrapped. Means test that as well, but I know a number of people who massively rely on it for it's intended purpose. Just because it's abused by a small number of people doesn't mean it should be taken away. I wouldn't give it for income support claimants though (presuming it still is), it would be for state pension/pension credit claimants only.