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?

The US tax regime is a nightmare. It is the only country in the world (i think ) that taxes citizens on earnings regardless of residence. I have to pay US tax even though I have not spent more than 1 year there in my life. And I am not even a particularly high earner. Even doing the tax returns costs a fortune.

6 months full pay and 6 months half pay is not excessive. I was entitled to this in my last job (private sector) and dh also has the same entitlement. The entitlement is usually only for long term absence.

My sister was unlucky enough to be diagnosed with cancer twice in a year. She worked through most of it. I dread to think how she would have coped if she had to cope with the worry of her sick pay running out too.

It's not that easy to afford critical illness cover particularly if you have already had the misfortune of being ill and it's often not has straightforward to claim on it as you may think.

Yes, I would also scrap subsidised food and drink outlets at Westminster and in hospitals and councils.

And I would get rid of a raft of managers and consultants and advisers and all the rest that are being paid for from the public purse but don't really add to society. And I would pay gps less.

If I could, which I probably couldn't, I would scrap the Royal Family unless they were self funding.

I would also scrap all tax on foundation and cosmetics for the over forties, and pay for it with a tax on Xboxes played with by adults

I think every private sector organisation I have worked for has paid enhanced maternity pay, varying from 6 months full pay to 5months full pay and then 3 months 25% pay. It's actually quite important in attracting and retaining staff.

Actually they should be looking at benefits paid to rich pensioners.
Free prescriptions, bus passes, TV license and winter fuel allowance should be means tested.
All prescriptions should be paid for at say 50p or £1 an item. Only 20% of people pay for their prescription. Last year in Manchester alone £1million of unused drugs was thrown away
I watches a program the other week about a letting agency that charges more rent for HB tenants than other tenants because they can get away with it. I was shocked that they can get away with it.

No, I don't think anybody should have it cut. But a poster up thread was saying it didn't matter as private organisations normally pay more than the statutory. But I have never come across one that did. But I've only ever been privy to what's in the contracts of admin staff. I don't know if management get better terms. I suspect they probably do.

A lot of people I know got SMP only, including myself. And I don't just mean small companies, I know of some big ones such as law firms offering SMP only.

It's not a race to the bottom but it's about making cuts - if there is an acceptable threshold that is deemed fair by law, and accepted by thousands of workers, then why shouldn't the public sector face some cuts to save money? Yes in an ideal world everyone would get more enhanced employment benefits - but we are talking about saving money and I'd rather see savings made here to save cuts elsewhere.

Oh and no envy at all - I made the choice to work where I do without public sector style employment benefits and wouldn't swap what I do for all the benefits in the world!

You are not wrong 3cheekylittlemonkeys. George Osbourne appears almost saintly in comparison .

Most hospitals don't have subsidised food for staff. In all the hospitals I've worked at we had to pay full price, just like the patients and visitors.

m.wsandb.co.uk/wsb/news/2356130/quarter-of-companies-only-offer-statutory-maternity-pay

Put of 100 companies surveyed, 75% offered more than basic SMP and research has shown that enhanced pay is beneficial to the company in the long term.

Reallybadparty, I'd vote for the foundation / Xbox redistribution!

The largest private adult education firm in the UK only pays SMP, ditto a big IT firm, big recruitment company, 3 large manufacturers (one huge and very famous, a multinational), 2 x large pub chains and most retail. All of those I know of only pay SMP on their standard terms.

Salty, there have already been massive cuts to much of the public sector. Have you tried ringing HMRC lately? There's a reason it takes so long to get through and so long to process paperwork, there aren't enough people to answer all the calls and deal with all the forms.

What public sector employment benefits are you talking about? Speaking from experience, they are slim to none unless you're counting maternity pay and sick pay.

Bakewell, maybe I should start a really bad party to bring these policies to the fore

Salty - I am planning to join the public sector the first time shortly. Overall the benefits package is much less attractive than I've had in the private sector - with the exception of the pension, but that is partially to compensate for the much lower wages.

I am planning on taking the job because it looks interesting and meaningful. but I did have to think hard about it because I could do so much better in the private sector

And before anyone picks up on public sector pensions, they are paid for by the workers at quite a high contribution rate.

Any X box / general gaming taxes would be genius as the players don't have the spare time or inclination to protest politically (at least not the ones in my house!)

I'm not saying pay no maternity / sick pay - just if SMP / statutory sick pay is considered the legal requirements and is sufficient for hundreds of thousands of workers in this country why should so much more be paid in the public sector when savings need to be made?

This thread was about where would you make savings. I'm not suggesting it out of spite or envy - just stating a saving could (not should) be made there.

Plus I do hear plenty of cases that take the absolute piss - I wish I could share them but it would definitely out DH as I guarantee a few are so extreme that nobody else will be off sick because of those reasons ...

That's a survey of firms and it's not very scientific and has a very small sample.

It's not been done by a particularly reliable organisation.

There is a big margin of error. This kind of survey is done by phoning HR depts and seeing if they will tell you what they offer. Or asking them to do an online survey. A lot won't tell you and those that do are more likely to offer more. Those that only offer SMP are much more likely to be tight lipped.

And many might say they do offer more when it's only offered to some people.

I do think some cuts to the public sector have been too extreme.

My DH has had hardly any pay increase in the last eight years - at one point we were earning the same and I now earn considerably more than what he is on. He is having to spread more work between fewer workers but is expected to maintain service levels - it's no wonder half his staff are off sick.

I agree 100% some of the cuts are ridiculously tight and there absolutely shouldn't be further ones in those areas - but savings need to be made somewhere, I'm just suggesting one area to look at.

Tonberry, I work a lot in hospitals in Scotland where soup and a roll is 75p, and in government buildings with an inhouse Costa coffee is very cheap.

I think that's wrong when people can't buy food for the week.

There are an awful lot of people in the UK who were not born in the UK and own businesses abroad. That income is declared as being subject to UK taxes yet the rules in the UK say you only pay taxes on income earned in the UK. The end result is that these people pay zero and are the ones who can and should.

I am not in favor of the U.S. system where you are required to fill out a return no matter where you live. It's cumbersome, costly to administer and acts as a disincentive to gain experience abroad. My idea is to tax people who are living in the UK. Also I would love to know what taxes are being paid by those people driving around with middle eastern plates during the summer months. Don't tell me they drove from Dubai?!? If you can fly a car that costs north of £200k into the UK on your private plane you can pony up to pay for the infrastructure that these people use while here.

I would do away with tax credits because they are too costly to administer and eliminating taxes on the first £20k should make up for this. On BTL I would tax all profits at 50%. I would give a tax break on 100% of childcare costs on any day where both parents are working.

I would leave maternity leave alone. The only thing I would change is public sector pensions. It's not affordable and needs to be cut. I would also halve the number of MPs and bring in PR. The axe would also fall on spending at the local authority level including those at housing associations. The money spent on personnel costs is far too high. Local housing association head is making £200k per year and they have a final salary pension plan. Its the north west and £80k a year would be more than plenty given the generous benefits and holiday allowance.

Salty, you work in the private sector and you've had pay rises which outstrip the public sector? You must be fairly senior. Not been like that for worker bees.

I don't mean all heating,but it doesn't need to be 30 degrees in meeting rooms and corridors.

Actually, I know of several corridors where if they could/would sort out the heating and drafts, and keep it at closer to 30 degress, it would actually save the NHS money: I'm getting very tired of preventable admissions to SCBU because a baby got frozen en route between labour ward and postnates...