To ask what you would cut if you were David Cameron?

[Seeingthebeautyineveryminute]

Can't for the life of me see how £12 billion savings are going to be made. I fear it will be cuts to already diminished support and services (as opposed to increased taxation). If you were David Cameron what would you do?

Well I'd have saved on Michael Gove's salary for a start........

My own throat

Lol. Good answer northernlurker ??

Sack off Trident.
Means test heating allowance.
Restrict child allowance to first 2 children.
Not pay all of the unelected MPs their redundancy pay!

Tax credits completely

Maternity allowance

J s a after a certain period, maybe different rates? Tallied to contributions like in Europe

Pensioner benefits for those with income over £20,000 tv, bus, fuel

Maybe cut free travel on London Underground for children? Not sure who pays but is a bit extravagant

Re introduce paying for museums and galleries.

Trident. There's your deficit wiped out straightaway.

Trident Missiles.

Tax evasion

The house of lords and the royal family?

I agree it should be Trident but that's just not going to happen.

It's 12bn from the welfare bill alone (and pensioners will not be targeted). I'm sure there will be some deep cuts to services and other things as well but this will be on top of the 12bn.

rox19 tax credits are merely a means tested version of the tax allowance families used to get. If it is fair for one person to get a tax allowance, surely someone whose wage supports theur kids should get a bigger allowance.

Childcare tax credit both allows parents to work, so they can pay tax and continue their careers and not become unemployable due to an extended career break AND it pays the wages of the childcare workers.

Therefore, it makes poor economic sense to cut tax credits. It would cost the economy.

Tackle Tax evasion, Winter fuel allowance for oaps on higher income and who aren't in the country, I would limit Child benefit to 2 children starting in say 2017. I don't think it should be capped for existing children.

Oh and yeah Michael Gove.

The problem is it costs alot to start means testing certain things, apparently.

I would abolish all the 2nd home relief for MP.

Anything that benefits the poor or disabled so I could kill them all of and only have nice shiny rich people or people who can wait on the shiny rich people (want some plebs to shine our shoes and top up our champers after all!)

No Child Benefit for children born in 9 months time from today.
Cut foreign aid until the deficit is cleared.
Put HS2 on hold until deficit cleared.
Bring in an extra tax just on bankers bonuses - 50%.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29173700

From this article alone MP expenses cost the tax payer £103 million.

I work for the NHS, I don't get travel expenses or bonus, so why sous MP's

You mean what will David Cameron cut, rather than what I would cut?

Well, he'll just shave a bit of all benefits hoping no one will notice too much.

This article is 2 years old, but still interesting

Oh and MP's - abolish "flipping" to avoid CGT. MP's agree to zero pay rise until the deficit is cleared then capped at CPI thereafter. A special unit at HMRC to examine MP expenses claims and reject those that are not legitimate (just like we do with Joe Public)

I wouldn't make more cuts

I'd chase more money - anyone who does business in this country MUST pay tax (Amazon, Philip green who pretends his wife lives in Monaco)

I'd invest in a massive house building programme - this equals more jobs and cheaper housing

Stop non doms buying up property

Raise minimum wage to living wage

100% inheritance tax - all money on death goes back to economy. I came in with nowt, I want to go out with nowt.

Plus even though I'd get rid of Trident I'd spend a good portion on conventional weapons/increasing overseas development.

This will make the world more safe.

Tax avoidance schemes, including the corporations (Starbucks, Amazon and the like) - I don't really care if they feck off elsewhere or stop trading in this country

I'd go through the local councils like a dose of salts - nobody would be getting £300k salaries there, and if they don't want to do the job for less I'd find someone who did. Nobody in local government agencies needs to be earning twice what the PM is.

I'd go through the NHS and look at middle management and admin, not frontline services like nurses and clinics. I'd make it so that if my elderly mother comes to visit me from another country and needs a doctor and a prescription and wants to pay for it, like she did, there was some means of her actually being able to pay. And once there was the means for someone like her to actually be able to pay, I'd make everyone else in the same situation pay. I understand about reciprocal healthcare, but when I went to Australia, I had to pay and was happy to do so when my son needed a doctor. Why can't we do the same?

Winter fuel allowances, free prescriptions, free bus passes for RICH pensioners, like they do in Australia (my parents have been stripped of their right to these things as they are too wealthy, and rightly so, and they agree that its rightly so).

That would be a start.

I'd also make it so that if someone is claiming child benefit for children in this country, the children have to be actually living in this country. This change may have already happened but if not then I'd make it a priority. Nothing wrong with coming from Europe with your family and claiming it if that is what you are entitled to, but if those children are not living here and you are not having to support them here, using your wages that you have earned here and paying out from those wages UK costs, then you don't need the child benefit, and if you do, move them here and see if you are better off.

Yep, it does really depend on whether the question is "what would you cut if you were pm" or "what do you think dc will cut"?

Because they are two very different answers to a large amount of mumsnetters