I’ve easily found £30bn of savings, so why can’t the government do this?

[OwnGravityField]

How about this state pension adjustment proposal?

Currently, the state pension system pays the same to everyone, even to households with very large private pensions and investment incomes. Much of this money ends up funding luxuries.

The proposal is simple:
*full SP for everyone who depends on it (60% of pensioners)
*households with more than £12,000 a year from private pensions, work, or investments have 50p of SP withdrawn for every £1 above that level, up to the value of the pension itself
*A quarter of pensioners would only have a modest reduction, and only the wealthiest 15% would no longer receive a publicly funded pension they do not need.

I used chatGPT to do the calculations.

Savings? THIRTY BILLION A YEAR

That’s 1% of GDP

List of things that could improve?

restored trust between generations so young taxpayers see their money spent on genuine need, not luxury.

national renewal: homes, NHS, lower childcare costs, investment in schools, training, the police force. It could be used to help families who are struggling with mortgage costs.

re-directing spending from low-value consumption (luxuries, imports) to investment (homes, healthcare, infrastructure) improves living standards

Positive effect on the bond markets, sterling value, credit-rating agencies, inflation trends, reduction in government debt - the UK really really needs this right now

I’d absolutely get up off my bum and vote for a party that proposed this. Would you?

Anyone who relies on ChatGpt is a moron. And for pension policy too? Dear me, no.

Do you know anything about how difficult UC was to set up and get working? It was shockingly difficult to implement.

We’d be able to build quite a few houses for £30bn though.

Slightly off topic but just to point out, you do know that the Government don't build houses don't you?

Yup. I turn 66 next year.

I suppose I'm a selfish cow living in the house where DH and I added a downstairs bedroom and wet room so that Mum could move in - I'm on my own now, and I dare say that I'm not supposed to be in a three bed house.

I really don't want to start all over again. There's a wee Co-op only a few yards away from me, a doctor's surgery a brief bus (or taxi ride) away. Ditto, the town centre. The gym is 10 minutes away in the car (or in the pensioners' bus once I'm no longer fit to drive).

I'd be crazy to move to another area, in my opinion. I have no immediate family and at least I know that I can reach amenities as required.

and god forbid you should sell it and make a profit to spend on yourself!

100%. Good on you and continue doing what works best for you.

Oh the horror!

I’m assuming that when dementia kicks in, it’ll be sold to pay for my place in the nursing home.

Until then, I’ll use my pension and whatever savings I have left to pay for care at home, once my mobility has gone. In the meantime I’m trying to keep fit for as long as I can.

To be honest, the house won’t bring In a lot - it’s not in what young folk expect as move in condition.. glowers at 1970s carpets and woodchip

A 2 bed in pristine condition in our street recently sold for 150k. One in more modern condition but not pristine - had wood cladding, but better carpets than mine- sold for 91k.

Well they should.
It'd solve loads of problems and inprove thousands of peoples lives no end if they had access affordable to council housing. It would ultimately save the public purse money as well as HB would no longer be going to private LLs in such huge amounts. And I say this as a private LL.

They still do actually. Councils can still build council houses or fund RSL’s to. There are 7 schemes within a 3 miles radius but house prises are still sky high too.

The problem is that we don't have enough skilled people to build the houses. It would make a lot of sense for the government to just build proper council houses, but they don't seem to want to do that - they'd rather line the pockets of their cronys and support a whole industry of social housing to keep mediocre quasi civil servants in jobs

Is it? I genuinely didn’t know that!

30 free hours stops when you earn £100k (although everyone is entitled to 15 free hours for a child of 3 + years). The real kicker is that because successive Governments have not funded “free” childcare, those people who actually pay full whack have to subsidise the “free” places. It’s the only way that the nurseries can keep running. That’s one of the reasons childcare costs have increased so much and why some of my colleagues are paying £3k per month for one child.

Selling off assets wasn't the issue as much as it wasn't invested.

Look at Norway their oil revenues were invested, rather than giving away tax cuts.

Successive governments of all flavours give tax cuts, increase benefits, pay into the NHS rather than investments..the former wins elections.

Everyone knows tough decisions need to be made on benefits, pensions & the NHS but it's political suicide to take the right action. We need consensus across the parties but that will never happen.