I think they should be cracking down on a) slum landlords and b) tax avoidance schemes. I also think the tax threshold should be increased to £15k or £16k and that the minimum wage should be at least £7. However, upper tax thresholds should be increased to £80k, when a 50p in the £ higher tax rate should kick in. And that they should increase the taxes on luxury goods (e.g. Cars with certain engine sizes and values, which would encourage buying smaller, greener cars - even though the car tax on 4 by 4s is a bit higher, it's only about £500 per year; designer goods etc should have a special VAT price). Instead of endlessly protecting pensioners, there should be significant tax breaks for people under the age of 40 who pay into a personal pension (beyond what you get now).
Introducing the some Swiss elements to Job Seekers Allowance might be a good idea too. At the moment, in the UK, there is a fairly unlimited amount of time you can be on JSA for, but it is such a pittance as to mean that buying smart clothes for interviews, moving house to a better area for work, travelling long distances to interviews and ensuring that you have sufficient technology to create and access applications and adverts with ease are beyond the realm of possibility for most on JSA. the Swiss system pays substantially more than we do here, often tying it to previous income - unless just left school/uni. (E.g. 1st year 100% of previous salary, second year 80%, third year 60%), but with decreasing values and eventually, After 3-5 years, payment is cut completely. This only applies to healthy, working age individuals. It does not apply to those with mental health or disability issues, nor does it apply to single parents. The Swiss system is also more generous at sponsoring quality education of the individual's choosing (instead of those ridiculous box ticking courses people are forced to do here), particularly all types of degrees and STEM courses (e.g. Plumbing).
There are a few problems with this system: one, it is possible to work for 6 months, quit and live of the unemployment benefit for a couple of years then work for 6 months again; two, scaling up something that works in such a small population to work in the country the size of Britain is difficult. However, I do think a much higher rate of JSA but for a clearly defined but limited period would improve things massively in empowering people to look for work and probably save money in the long run.
Everything should help People into work and make work financially viable. We have a family living purely on benefits who keep their horses at our yard. They have three, whereas I work two jobs and can only afford one. I appreciate this is serious first world problem stuff (oh woe is me, I can only afford one horse!), but when they were taking me through how and what they claim, I was gobsmacked. I agree with previous posters who say that tax credits should be kept - increased, actually - but child benefit limited.