cuts - Wednesday's Spending Review

[mrsbaldwin]

Brace yourself ladies - these cuts are big, there will be tens of thousands of public sector redundancies and it's said (by the Fawcett Society amongst others) that they will disproportionately affect women.

Some workers will get some sort of payoff, and some will be pleased to go. Some will find new jobs.

But I reckon the overall effect (licks finger and holds it in the wind) will be to drive down women's wages, meaning that once you are made redundant from your public sector post you may find more work but it will be at a lower rate and the extra competition for jobs across the board will drive wages down across the board. This may be true for men as well but I think it will affect women - mums - more.

If you are watching the press coverage on Weds, what do you think the effects of the cuts and the job losses for women (and mums) will be?

Re the difference in % in working people in social housing between now and 70s

In 70s there was stacks of social housing and many many different sorts of people in it

Then it was all sold off

Result when there is hardly any social housing = only those on the lowest incomes (or no incomes) are in it.

Remember they won't include people on HB in private accomodation in that stat.

For true picture you would want to know how many people/families on HB now and what they do for work etc compared to number in social housing in 70s and what they did. And adjust for population growth as well.

Or something... My point is that stat is very misleading as it's comparing two completely different things.

Hallowese what woudl you suggest as an alternatiuve to the NHS? All suggestions must guarantee cover for those a health insurance scheme would not touch such as the LT sick and disabled.

?

You're totally right of course, 192 Billion. Am I missing something? Why should people who work cost money?

Absoluely ISNT, although you woudl have to take out people who always worked until tehy retirewd to get a really useful picture of work in council housing; one that took out sick / disbaled /carers/ those in training (if youa re a student you cant claim for HB for yourself but you can for eg your partner and any children) and elderly would actually give a really useful figure I think.

Hallowese they shouldn;t

But unless the minimum wages rises ++++ to meet current housing costs etc they do.

Eitehr e precipitate a hosuing and prices crash, we pay a real minimum wage, or we accept that the state has a difference to meet.

Gideonsmum - for a start I'd remove IPT from health insurance so that people were not penalised for taking responsibility for themselves. I would also remove IPT on life assurance/insurance, critical illness cover etc.

I would incentivise responsibility rather than tax it.

Gideons you could use an insurance type scheme like they do in France and Germany. No idea whether it would bebetter than the NHS if applied here but France and Germany do tend to be ranked ahead of us in international health care rankings.

Abolishing the minimum wage is probably the best bet. Then we will be competetive in the world markets and the government won't be subsidizing large companies.

OK, so I have never lived abroad (most countries outside EU would ban us anyway)- how do the schemes work for the low income / disnbled / those who will cost a small fortune?

Genuine interest. DH wa refused health insurance here due to a health problem cured five eyars ago, we have 2 disabled kids and a low income: how would people like us be covered by this system?

We'll be competitive because the wage bill will be so low that people won;t be able to afford basic life necessities, surely? And people will absolutely not touch the worst paid jobs that are also the most essential in amny ways- HCA, chidlcare etc. be better off on benefits tbh. Unless you remove benefits in which case a whole other group gets damaged.

What I woudl like to see is a massive house priocve crash emaning that people could afford to live off a real wage again. negative equity is only an issue if opne plans to sell anyway, so people should start to see houses as homes not invesments. Then average people might have a hope in hell of buying, freeing up social housing only for teh poorest, and Government subsidies in teh form of tax credits would be unnecessary.

Would upset too many of DC's friends though.

A house price crash would be a disaster, it would cause another financial crisis and a total loss in confidence in the UK economy leading to a long and very painful recession.

Even in America there is Medicare I believe, which is a socially funded safety net. We should always provide for the most vulnerable people BUT there are plenty of people who think nothing of spending 5k plus on a holiday, surely they should be spending that money on a very comprehensive health insurance.

I agree that we need a house price crash, it's long overdue. Property prices need to be in line with Salaries again.

Gordon thought he was so clever inferring that there would be no more boom and bust, every market is cyclical and if it misses one downward swing the next one, and there is always a next one, will be far, far worse.

We should have seen prices slow down or stop in about 2003 for that to happen.

Right, like the one we have anyway? (remember we have already lost the job of the main earner, the home we owned and possibly the one we rent)

An end to the mionimum wage would be a disaster. Not for us- dh self employed- but for very many. I've worked for less than a living wage pre-tax credits (before kids, £1.77 an hour) and the view ain't good.

Medicare is considered a joke by those with severe disability etc (I should perhaps mention my field is disability). Ot doesn;t work for those people at all. In fact I have heard it referred to as backdoor euthanasia.

The minimum wage is probably the only good thing the Labour Party did when it was in office and should be kept.

I wouldn't base any new healthcare system on the American one as there are 10s of millions of Americans who access to little or no healthcare at all and America tends to rate as even worse than us in international health ratings

Don;t they ahve ridiculous birth mortality rates in America, for a country of their development?

So it's not even all in 'my' world, IYSWIM.

I don;t agree it's the only good thing labour did: I didn;t vote for them in fact but I managed to do my degree, and we were able to keep going when DH was sick, and then when the boys were diagnosed with ASD< becuase of tax credits.

Not denying there's crap there too of course- the wars, for a start.

The american health system is terrible which is why Obama is trying to reform although he is meeting heavy resistance. If we were going to totally revolutionise health provision then I think we'd be far better basing it on France or Germany.

Dear Catherine,

What is an 'Equivalised Net Income Decile' in actual income per year?

Alicatte

Yes I'm another one that knows Medicare in the us is rubbish you still need money to be seen not just as much people still have to go without to see a dr or in manycases can't go without so they don't see a dr

I agree don't penalise that can afford take our medical insurance but don't punish those that can't often the disabled and the poor

yes Nhs has it's problems but were the envy of a lot of countrys that we can be seen without credit cards needed first

oh a d the german system is pretty harsh yu got to live thee set number of years you have to jump through hoops if you got no insurance and there free hospitals are very second rate

Yep I had job offer with accomidation good salary etc in the states but insurance was problem as was a. Visa as they felt that ds be a burden on the state and ds is not as disabled as Rivens dd

Minimum wage yeah sure peoplegoung to enjoy doing for 1,25 a hour can live on that all that happens then is therich the business owners just going get rcher as they can slash there outgoings

Friend was refused visa for Canada due to Crohns.

It's hard to move about once any illness happens isn;t it?

Yep even within the Uk there is a wide standard if healthcare were fortunate that live close to London for specialised care as our local not to good