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?

Say for example if someone is diagnosed with cancer and is off work having treatment they shouldn't have the extra worry of loosing their home because they can't keep up the mortgage repayments

I have critical illness cover for this. It's widely available and quite cheap. Why should this not be the person's responsibility.
Same as life insurance for when you die.

I don't think it should be a race to the bottom either, but six months full pay is far far too much.

Lots of public sector employment comes with a lot more sick leave than 6 months full pay. Mine is 26 weeks full pay and 26 weeks half pay

I'm appalled! This is ridiculous and this should certainly be cut! How much does this cost the taxpayer yearly?

By capping child benefit to 2 kids what happens with triplets?

And you can't really do it on pregnancies.

^I have critical illness cover for this. It's widely available and quite cheap. Why should this not be the person's responsibility.
Same as life insurance for when you die.^

And some firms provide said insurance as part of the vendors package.

I don't disagree that some public sector employment benefits should be changed (and many have recently) but they need to be considered in the context of an overall remuneration and benefits package.

Shut of the heating in hospitals? I've heard it all now!

*By capping child benefit to 2 kids what happens with triplets?

And you can't really do it on pregnancies*

You'd still pay. Why can't you do it on number of pregnancies which result in a live birth? I don't see the problem.

For the moment, l stay at home and we claim tax credits. You know why? Because employers give parents such a hard time, if their children are ill. My husband can't just take time off, so it falls to me.
All my children are in school.
Childcare would cost the government more anyway.
So stick that in your pipes and smoke it!

Enjoy gloating while you can feminine. The day is coming tax credits will be no more. Apart from that, hundreds of parents manage to juggle sick children and working as they have to. I firmly believe if people cannot afford to stay at home without claiming tax credits when they're children are at school they should lose them. Using a lame excuse of children perhaps being sick is laughable. Get your arse back to work FFS!

How much does this cost the taxpayer yearly?

I have no idea. The only people I know who have used it have had cancer or other really serious illnesses.

I don't disagree that some public sector employment benefits should be changed (and many have recently) but they need to be considered in the context of an overall remuneration and benefits package

Agree but six months full pay and six months half pay is insane!

To those wanting to cut "middle management" and admin in the nhs and protect front line staff, do you actually work in the nhs? Which middle managers are you talking about? Who will do the admin, other than the front line staff?

I've never had to take long term sick but I'm glad that safety net is there for me if I needed it. I think when I last looked at critical illness cover it had lots of exclusions, was pricey and would be prohibitively expensive for many people, there's also lots of things like flu or a back injury which can keep people off for a few weeks and wouldn't be covered, I wouldn't want to see people a broken arm away from utter crisis.

You know why? Because employers give parents such a hard time, if their children are ill

You are entitled to unpaid leave (if need be) if you have children, so something doesn't sound right here. So let me get this right, you don't work because your kids 'might get sick'?

Germany has started increasing it's defence budget as the economy has balanced. It has been around 1.3% of GDP in recent years. We're at around 2.2% and I would support a cut to around 1.5%. British military capacity would be minimal and I am okay with that.

Critical illness cover is really not that expensive. Yes there are exclusions of course, but it is insanity to provide this level of cover for someone who may be off sick with the flu!

You could almost argue that it should kick in (at a much lower rate) only if you are off for a longer period of time!

I had no idea at all and this is really rather sobering.

I agree CinderellaRockefeller admin has been massively cut where I work in a PR move to say that they are making cuts whilst protecting frontline NHS services, this now means we have consultants on £70,000 typing their own letters (very slowly!). It's false economy.

Agree but six months full pay and six months half pay is insane!

The higher you climb the ladder the more sick leave is offered where I work. The man at the top gets 52 weeks full pay and 52 weeks half pay. It's crazy really when you think they're not just paying sick pay to one person but also paying for a replacement!

MPs second homes, as a pp said - if a MP has commuters in their constituency, they can commute too. If too far away, university style halls. No claims for travel costs, they know the wage and apply for the job just like everyone else.

Government takes any profit made by MPs who sell their second home.

Scrap CB but create a family tax band, increase amount of tax free allowance for first two children.
Parents link tax codes etc. and so you are taxed together.

Free school meals for all primary age children - at least you would know that all kids are getting one hot meal a day.

Regional minimum wage linked to housing costs.
Tax free allowance linked to minimum wage.

Public sector workers should get statutory everything, holiday, SMP, mat. Leave - they make/ enforce the rules, so they should have to stick to them too.

Council housing / housing benefit capped to two / three bedroom homes. Why should the taxpayer pay for people to live in 5/6 bedroom homes? I have a 3 bed house and couldn't afford anything bigger. Therefore I will limit the number of children I have to fit.

JSA for fit and able people limited to 6 months for those who have never worked and as a proportion of working life for everyone else (ie you don't take out more than you put in).

Means test pensioners - they are among the richest in the country and it's ridiculous that they get free travel, Tv and winter fuel allowance. My parents who live in the outskirts of london effectively get a travel card worth almost £2000 each FREE buses should be enough for them, not train and tube too.

Again, limit under 16 free travel to buses and make them give up their seat if a paying passenger gets on

Tuition fees - if the child went to private school, full whack - £15,000 perhaps? Use the rest to subsidise state school kids. If you opt out of the system, you opt out completely.
Same with NHS- we get private healthcare through DH's work and, when I required tests, the GP encouraged me to get the tests done privately and then skip the queue in the NHS for treatment. The tests would have taken 3 months on the NHS and a consultant apt (if required) another 3 months after that. How can that be right? If you choose private healthcare it should be all or nothing.

I would scrap road tax and charge road tolls instead.

Increase tax on alcohol, cigarettes and unhealthy food (not sure how this would be defined).

Give some benefits in the form of vouchers for food only. I suspect and I hope I am wrong that food banks have become popular as people realise they can get food for free and keep back money for other purposes. There have always been food banks, I used to volunteer for CAB during the last labour government and we would recommend them back then too.

No public sector workers should be paid more than the PM.

Armed forces, they do a great job but I think it's time we realised that we are no longer an empire and we shouldn't stick our beaks in where they are not wanted.

Schools- cut the ridiculous red tape and admin and let teachers, teach. It's so sad to see my talented teacher friends reduced to empty husks. At school in my day (around 20 years ago!) teachers were passionate and made it all about learning, not hitting targets. Maybe I am looking back with rose tinted glasses...

I could go on......

I work in the NHS, we get six months full sick pay and then six months half pay. About six of my colleauges are currently off with bereavement/ stress / depression and have been for months. My dh is aghast at people taking six months off sick after a bereavement, when his mum died he took a week and any more would have been frowned on. I'm no really sure how I feel about it, part of me feels people really take advantage just because they can and would be back far sooner if they weren't being paid, but then my more compassionate side thinks that Nursing is such a stressful job perhaps this is the reason why people get such generous sick leave. When they come back after six months off ( they usually come abk just before full pay runs out), they then have a phase return of half shifts for a few weeks and still get any holidays they have accrued during the six months off.

I can totally understand how someone may not be able to work because their children might get sick DamnBamboo. I have friends who have been treated terribly when they have needed time off to care for dependents, if you don't have local family support it's nigh on impossible.

If you choose private healthcare it should be all or nothing

No it shouldn't.
If you are still paying taxes towards schools and healthcare, it's nobody's business if you choose to go private on occasion really is it?

Unless of course if those people have their taxes reduced accordingly. What do you think would happen then? You'd see a massive reduction in the amount of tax collected, that's what.

CIPD fugures show that public sector sick pay is more generous but not unheard of in the privste sector - the comparators are a bit over 2/3 in the public sector and 1/5 private sector services and 1/3 private sector manufacturing, production and non-profit offering over 20 weeks on full pay.

if you don't have local family support it's nigh on impossible

I have no family nearby and I still wouldn't expect my whole salary if I was off for a prolonged period. How is a business meant to function under these circumstances. Oh wait I forgot, it's the taxpayer that foots the bill - so that doesn't matter then!

It's neither hear nor there what the private sector offer though is it.
The taxpayer isn't paying for it.

here nor there

Those of you saying you'd get rid of maternity allowance, do you mean the payment that self employed people get for 9 months after they have a baby? I think it's equates to about £130 (ish) a week. This is a payment they are entitled to because they pay national insurance. So, those employed could still receive their SMP, but those entitled to maternity allowance would get fuck all?

Those saying they would abolish tax credits, how on earth do you think people on low wages would manage, seriously?? I despair of some of the attitudes on here, I really do. God help the working class over the course of the next five years.

I can see crime rates soaring if tax credits are taken away. People will do whatever it takes to feed and clothe their families and if they are working every hour God sends and still can't make ends meet, what the hell are they supposed to do?

If I were David Cameron I would be tackling tax evasion. I'm pretty sure we'd save £12bn this way no problem. I am not opposed to only paying CB for the first 2 kids, that seems fair enough, perhaps even putting something in place whereby you are only eligible for the childcare element of working tax credit by the time you are on child 3. Any other cuts to child benefit/tax credits are cruel in my opinion.

I don't believe cutting this deficit is more important than looking after families who cannot make ends meet through no fault of their own.