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?

Tatty where does your mother live? We always charge people from outside the EU if they come to us needing a Dr. They also get issued with a private prescription not as NHS one. It's £55 for a ten minute GP consultation

You speak a lot of sense Tattydevine

Tackle tax evasion
Stop paying any benefits to anyone who lives overseas
Stop paying CB for any child that does not live in the UK or pay it at the rate of the govt. that the child lives in.
Limit CB to 2children.
Stop foreign aid to countries who are proven to have corrupt govt.
Halve the amount of MPs we have
Put an end to the claims culture we have
Centralise buying supplied for NHS.
Get rid of management layers in NHS
Get rid of management layers in Westminster
Ensure accountability in govt

UserNames

Trident needs to GTFO and if tax evasion is also resolved, surely we would be back in the black?

Middle management and £££ artwork etc in the NHS.

Clamp down on tax evasion from Starbucks etc.

Winter fuel allowance - means tested.

No child benefit for more than 2 children. I would apply it to children already born though.

From 9 months from today, only get housing benefit for a two bedroom house, so the council only pays to house two children, if you want more children, you pay to house them.

Cut tax credits to only have the childcare element. No working/child tax credit.

Scrap the £500 grant for baby equipment.

I wouldn't restrict benefits to two children as it will deepen child poverty.

I'd increase NMW to a living wage and then scrap Tax Credits for people in employment so that the government is saving money but not making anyone worse off.

Means test some pensioner benefits suh as bus passes and TV license and only pay the fuel allowance to those resident in the UK.

Have some NHS services share facilities. As an example, where I live there's a GP surgery that always has at least two spare rooms and a couple of miles away there's a MW clinic that only uses one room. Why can't they share one building? The MW has a day clinic at the GP surgery once a week anyway so it wouldn't be a complicated move.

I'd overhaul MP benefits, get rid of the subsidised bar, cap pay rises, and make them spend more time in their constituencies and less time in central London (obviously excluding London MPs) to save on costs. Encourage multiple occupancies instead of second homes, if three MPS are working in London why can't they share a three bed house instead of each having a house? My old employer sent some staff away to set up a new office, they were in a hotel for the first couple of weeks at £560 a week each (£80 a night, four members of staff) until HR realised they could rent a four bedroom multiple occupancy house for £90 per week per person and save a fortune. No reason why some MPs can't do the same.

Charge for missed hospital appointments. I worked in the NHS and the amount of people who don't turn up for appointments is ridiculous. Also charge for replacement or repair of medical equipment provided, for example we'd get people coming in who had deliberately removed their casts because they were bored or it was itchy or they were going out and didn't want a cast on, one patient removed his because he fancied a bath without having to cover it. They would then need an urgent appointment in the oncall clinic, they'd need to be x rayed again to check they hadn't done any further damage, and a new cast would need to be applied.

Take over the counter medications off prescription (except for people entitled to free prescriptions or those who have a prepayment card). So Calpol, E45, ibuprofen, Gaviscon, etc.

I don't think reintroducing fees for entry to museums is a bad idea. When you had to pay we rarely went because of the cost now we never go because they are too frickin crowded and it's not an enjoyable day out at all!

Give a leisure card to those in receipt of benefits so they get free entry/reduction and charge everyone else. I'm sure the crowds must put people off anyway.

I don't know how I would make these savings. I would ask is it strictly necessarily that they need to make them? I think they have pissed around with child benefit so much and it is now incredibly unfair that they may as well scrap it anyway and increase tax credits. I suppose that was always the intention.

I would not make any cuts to the NHS/Education and I would raise the taxes for those on over £150K but that's never going to happen

There might also be some cuts that could be made to the prison system and what goes on inside the prisons. I say this cautiously though because I'm not that familiar with the system and I am sceptical of how the media report it.

Love how a few people on here and other threads always say cut cb, cut the tax credits etc

How about they are an essential helpline to millions of people each week, me included.

If they were to cut these benefits then they should raise the minimum wage to an actual living wage so the workers don't need to rely on bloody benefits.

I agree Trident is a waste of money (OH is on it!).

Thing is we won't recoup all that money as is already a done deal.

Would save a lot in upkeep and running costs if cancelled though.

I like BearFrills idea about scrapping tax credits and introducing a living wage.

Does nobody get that Cameron has pledged to cut £12bn from the welfare budget alone?

I agree in principal with means testing some of those benefits Bearfrills but I'd be concerned that the administration costs of the means testing system would wipe out any savings. I too work for the NHS and it frustrates the hell out of me that people don't turn up to appointments and I think that because they're free at the point of delivery they aren't valued however unless everyone was charged I think it'd be futile as lots of the people who don't turn up are entitled to free prescriptions anyway and if the payment didn't apply to them we'd be back to square one. I also would worry that the costs of a system to charge for missed appointments would be greater than the money recouped.

With regards to the child benefit limits lots of people are proposing I can see the logic of this but I wonder how this could be administered, would you end up punishing mainly mothers who are by and large the recipients of CB whereas fathers who don't support their children would see little difference.

There might also be some cuts that could be made to the prison system and what goes on inside the prisons. I say this cautiously though because I'm not that familiar with the system and I am sceptical of how the media report it

The prison system is on it's knees with extremely dangerous levels of understaffing and a rising death rate. I don't think it can take anymore. They already lost over 40% of officers during the last parliament.

Housing benefit is the biggest cost after pensions. Maybe a dent could be made if we had a huge house building programme so people didn't have to rent privately but I can't see Dave doing that, given the amount of HB millionaires in his own party. I think he'll scrap it for under 25s, and then the hostels will close down and the people will end up on the street, or in the aforementioned prison, but thats cool because prison is funded from a different department so Dave will still have cut the 'welfare' bill.

Bearfrills I agree, any medicine which can be bought over the counter cannot be prescribed.

On the subject of prisons, is it true you can do a degree while you are banged up? Surely its worthwhile to do something naughty, get 3 years, save £27k in uni fees plus room and board...

I'm probably wrong (I hope I am!)

I get that a properly rehabilitated prisoner will have some life skills to reduce the likelihood of a life of crime, but still...

Rox so seeing as you would abolish tax credits would you hire wages then because people have to claim them because they work for a pittance. You can't have it both ways. You may be an I'm alright Jack that doesn't need or agree with them but there are others that would not survive with out them. So thank God you're not Dave Cameron.
On to the question. I'd stRt with the fat cat salaries. Okay they may work hard big deal so do I.
Means testing the winter fuel allowance.

I also get that it's probably no picnic job hunting when you are fresh out of prison...

Housewithghost what do you mean by fat cat salaries though? Do you mean in the private sector? You are aware these people pay 50p in the pound in tax and if their salary reduced so would the tax? You are also aware we are in a free market economy, supply and demand, etc etc?

I don't think it is possible to make that level of cuts whilst protecting pensioners. I think he's likely to do away with child benefit completely and just add an extra bit to child tax credits to compensate. Any kind of benefits paid to the middle classes is going to be cut back massively.

I would raise the minimum wage thus instantly saving a fortune in tax credits.

I would decriminalise the non-paying of a licence fee and make it a civil matter like all other non payment of fees is. It is not in the public interest to have people going to prison for this, putting further strain on the prison system, and costs more to the taxpayer by far than by having a handful/chunk of people not paying it in the first place. Make it a civil matter and recover costs in the same way a civil debt is (county court judgement, bailiffs, etc)

If you can cut Arts funding Miele, can you cut sport too please? I cannot see how sport is more important or less important the the Arts.

No I mean his cronies. Gove ect ect.