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?

One attempt at IVF will cost more than one years worth of child benefit for a family of three children. Is it really fair to pay for the one whilst denying the other? Bearing in mind that the majority of child benefit paid goes back in to the economy in the form of spending and around two thirds of IVF treatments will be unsuccessful and result in nothing but heartbreak.......

I'm not actually suggesting cutting IVF by the way but I was interested to see what support there is for government funding whilst child benefit is being so roundly slammed.

Many businesses would go bust of they had to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. I work in the care sector which is completely funded by local government who have for the last three years cut the budget by 4% each time.

I earn £14,500 and rely on tax credits/child benefit to top up my wages. Without the top up I would not be able to keep a roof over my DD's or my head.

One way to save some money would be for the government to look at section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983. If you have been detained under the mental health act/sectioned then you do not have to pay for your after care. I have worked with several people over the years that have amassed tens of thousands in savings as they do not have to pay for their care. The government should change the act that if someone has not has a relapse in say 5 years that they should then pay for their care.

reduce the arms bill stop fighting others peoples wars.

Reduce foreign aid

Cut the services which the nhs provide so that it is not a free for all
No free hospital treatment for non UK residents.

No non emergency ambulances, pay for the transport yourself.

No medical home visits unless a case of life or death.

Bill parents for non attendance of meetings with education professional and stop all help until they do attend meetings and prove that they are adhering to the recommended advice.

Increase tax on fags and booze.

Tackle tax avoidance.

No child benefit for those born after 2015

Reduce length of maternity benefit.

Means test winter fuel allowance.

MP's expenses

Tax avoidance loopholes

Cut child benefit to 2 children

Means test winter fuel allowance and free TV licence

Chase big company's tax evasion

Abolish Ofsted and let teachers do their jobs.

Sack Michael Gove

Introduce 3 missed appointments and your out doctors system. (Exempt for patients with altzimers and other conditions that cause memory loss)

Introduce fines for using the NHS for being drunk and abusive.

I just asked my 10 year old

she said 'his penis since he wont need it as no one likes him' - I may be indoctrinating them too much

Ghostys

I've been going through this thread expecting to find something to get annoyed at. Failing!

things to cut:

HS2 - cost/benefit doesn't stack up
wind farm subsidies - ditto
obviously dodgy MP expenses and perks
green deal - massive waste. Just take VAT off insulation and new boilers.
child benefit after two, starting in 10 months time. Excluding where the second birth is a multiple. (or if the first is triplets!)
stamp hard on tax avoidance (and BTW if you are shopping at Amazon, Starbucks etc, look hard at yourself; there is NOTHING that Amazon sell that you can't get elsewhere, often for the same price given that they don't sell necessities so everything can be bought second-hand. Or it is clutter you don't need. Or it is cheap BECAUSE of the tax dodge)
zero hours contracts
tax relief on BTL mortgages (and I'm a landlord - but why should there be a difference)
inheritance tax relief (and this may affect me; so long as I don't get a bill, I'm fine with that.

David Cameron does not actually have the power to abolish the Royal family.

I'd stop all tax credits but give people 6-12 months notice. I'd means test child benefit. I'd cap housing benefit at around £850 a month.

Have a €1 lottery for land belonging to the landed gentry.

You need those pointless NHS managers to ensure non NHS entitled people are identified (that's part of my job) and manage clinics effectively, dealing with the rate of people who don't turn up (that would be part of my job too) and free up clinical time for clinical purposes - like administering IVF (that would be my job too). NHS admin is really a lot more complex than people think. That's fine , if I do my job well you won't ever have to think about it.

Introduce on the spot fines for anyone not wearing a top in public, drinking in the streets, smoking on the streets or showing their arse cheeks or boxers/knickers.

I'd abolish working tax credits on the same day I replaced the minimum wage with a regionally-adjusted living wage.

It's a disgrace that taxpayers subsidise businesses so they can get one of their key inputs (labour) at below the cost of supply. If a business can't afford to pay a wage that a human being can survive on (on a full time basis) their business plan is fundamentally flawed.

Businesses of all sizes and profit margins are being heavily subsidised and enabled to pay poverty wages by the state's largesse.

And by ensuring a living wage that reflected the cost of living in each region (say), businesses would have an incentive to locate themselves where the cost base is lower - helping to regionally rebalance rhe economy and being jobs to areas where they are actually needed at the same time as reducing the insane pressure on services in London and many parts of the South East.

I've just had a brainwave introduce vat on tattoos

Judging by the people I saw today Cameron could probably recoup 12 billion pretty soon.

Oh yes, and tax relief on buy-to-let mortgages. Thanks, specialsubject. It's more business welfare that helps to out owner occupiers at q disadvantage and pushes up house prices and rents.

Landlord tax.

Anyone who owns more than two properties and rents them out should pay a tax equivalent to the higher tax rate on all rent received OR they could forfeit this tax if they cut the rents down to a level on a par with local social housing.

This would free up more affordable housing and cut the benefits bill with a lower housing benefit rate.

I watched a programme where one man owns over 100 properties and rents them out. He can avoid paying more tax by buying more property each year, which in turn gives him more money to buy more houses and so the cycle continues.

Another plan could be to limit the number of properties a person or company owns unless they are a registered charity as current housing associations are with a not for profit ethos and accountable to charity commission.

Yes landlord and by to let tax increases and closing the loopholes that people use to avoid capital gains tax when they sell.

Has anyone said HS2?

butterfly rent received IS taxable income, if you get enough to put you into the higher rate bracket, you pay the higher rate.

no landlord running a business can afford to offer social housing rates.

the tax break on BTL mortgages does, as I said, need to go. That may also stop the dodge you mentioned, assuming the journo was right.

I mentioned HS2. Cost/benefit does NOT stack up.

One attempt at IVF will cost more than one years worth of child benefit for a family of three children. Is it really fair to pay for the one whilst denying the other

But the suggestion is not that it is denied outright, rather once you have two (or more if multiple births) children from two pregnancies!

IVF is dear... but how much in the grand scheme does it cost compared with, say, treating the health issues associated with obesity!

I don't think you can pick and choose treatments to cut like this, and anyway, the government doesn't decide this NICE does.