Where would you LIKE to see cuts made?

[Rosieeo]

I recognise that people are going to vote for certain parties because if another party gets in they might lose some benefit/possibly jobs etc. Or because they have a deep-seated hatred of one side, for whatever reason.

But (and you can correct me, I know very little about politics) the country is in debt and some cuts have to be made, regardless of who makes them.

So where would you be prepared to see cuts being made?

So, since LFC is so anti-riches, who votes we cut the wages of her and her DH (both public sector) and their pensions. I'm sure that they won't mind.

I work as a transport planner(highways/public transport etc) for a local council. We are expecting our budget will be cut, and if past budgets
etc are anything to go by, the cuts will be significant (30-40%). Probably because transport is not 'sexy' or a vote winner, we always seem to be losers in terms of funding in times of crisis.

Second homes to be returned to local community (gradually obviously - compulsory purchase)

No second homes allowed apart from 'holiday homes' where you can't live in them all year

Oh yes, final salary pensions in the public sector.

The rest of us are truly stuffed on pensions, and whilst it is nice to safeguard public sector employees, we can't afford to. Pass legislation that prevents ridiculous claims about the changes.

cut tax credits for those on 45k plus, stop funding second homes for MP's they could after all stay in a cheap hotel when working away from their 'primary residence'.

stop ctf - there's not much point unless you can afford to add to it (in which case you could set one up yourself anyway).

change ema to free buses for students and give them vouchers to help pay for books/general study supplies etc.

do more to stop benefit cheats.

So if I can only leave 50k laurie - is that between my two children or is it 50 k each?

If my spouse dies is he only able to leave me 50K and will I have to sell my house to pay the rest into society and who will then home me If I can't afford a house of my own - as there is little soical housing.

In prinaple it is a great idea but in practice it could mean children of 12 being left with no home and no one to look after them - they would have possibly lost a parent and been put into foster care.

I would like to see child tax credit cut back to one child then 30k. 2 children 33k, 3 children 36k, 4 children 39k, 5 children 41k and so on uping the amount by 3k for every child. This would be based on the household income regardless of one or two parents.

I would also like to see 5% on income tax on every band and NI abolished.

i would be happy to pay 25% and not pay NI

Rosieo, I am happy to see some cuts made to the NHS if it has to happen, but I'd like to see intelligent, specific cuts, rather than mass slices across the board. The deficit being so huge may of course require that.

And as for cuts to Welfare, what do you mean? Lots of suggestions for cuts to specific benefits here, if that's what you mean. I don't think any of them will make a huge amount, but again I'd rather see a steady stream of intelligent cuts than massive whacking great percentage cuts that only cause huge problems we end up paying for another way.

fembear - if you read the thread the point is that I don't mind and I've already said so.

And I don't have a pension. But because I think I should be taxed more (and likely won't be)I will now probably start one as I probably should take some personal responsibility.

LFC - and IIRC, civil service pensions were index linked ...during the years of high inflation they did tremendously well (ahead of wage rises I think) whereas other pensioners were stuffed.

I agree with increasing public sector pension age to 65 for all non-physical jobs, and all new employees to the system to 68, with ability to increase it in line with life expectancy increases.

It should be set at whatever 5 years under average life expectancy is, tbh, because it was only designed to last that long on average.

Don't like it, well, feel free to go work in the private sector, we all get paid so much more.

I do think there should be massive reform of the benefits system. It's an utter mess.

The people that truly need, don't get and the people who can't be arsed, do.

Ivykaty - up to 50k to leave per child (if finished fulltime education)

Wealth passes to surviving spouse who then uses it for their care til they die and only when all people in the family who need cared for by that money should it then go back to society.

I think the NHS needs overhauling - in the sense that some operations/treatment should not be provided. Mainly cosmetic/ all of the homoeopathy malarkey.

And I'd say that those who refuse to work should be on subsistence.

Double property tax on houses left empty for over 6 months.

Ivykaty, Laurie did say that the IHT limit suggested shouldn't apply to financial dependents.

I'd like to see retirement age across the board raised to 68, though it's easy for me to say that, not having a physical job.

More specifics on benefit cheats - do you mean spending money pursuing people who are moonlighting while expected to live on £60 a week? Not keen on that tbh.

'2. Change the publics mindset about 'retirement' - people start work much later at 22-25 (after Uni)and only want to work til 55-60. So people think its ok to only work for 30 years and then be a drain on the state/draw a pension for the last 10-30 years.'

LFC for PM.

But that would mean in most cases that a house a home would have to be sold - where would the children of 18 and 20 live?

You would turff them out of their family home and make them homeless?

I think it is worth differentiating between the civil service and the public sector as a whole. I work in local government and whilst we get a pretty good pension, I get paid less than my colleagues who do essentially the same job in private practice. i am happy to get paid less as on the whole i have a better work life balance.

They're not children at 18 and 20 - they should be supported til they leave full time education. Then they can have their 50k when you die.

Yes, if you die when they are 21 and they have finished full time education they would not get to keep your home - they would get the 50k instead.

I would limit all State subsidies re children to one-child-per-adult. So the typical family of mummy & daddy would get child benefit for 2 kids. If people want to have more then they should shoulder the cost themselves. They should not expect the State to subsidise their decision to over-populate the world.

thanks expat

Don't mortgages come with some sort of insurance in the event of a death. If not, then life cover would surely see your house safe?

I'd like to see people employed in voluntary community work for JSA. Also Incapacity benefit should be short term. I know someone who's been dodging work this way for 10 years!!

'The agency we use charges the council £15 per hour for the respite carer. The carer gets £5.60 an hour which is minimum wage. That agency is making a bomb out of taxpayers.'

Yes, and then the agency doesn't provide steady hours for the employee, making his/her sorting child care and having a steady income a huge barrier.

where would the children of 18 and 20 live

Since when is an 18 year old a child? She's a young adult. I don't agree with LFCs ideas on inheritance, BTW, but people used to grow up sooner didn't they?

If you limit inheritance tax in this way it does nothing to help gross inequalities because the seriously rich will simply buy houses for their kids earlier, set up trust funds etc.

Agree on homeopathy spend. £4m off the deficit - only £162,096,000,000 to go!

Cosmetic an interesting one. I wouldn't cut treatment for birthmarks, e.g. port wine stains, or ear pinning back, or breast reconstruction following mastectomy, or removal of potentially dangerous moles etc etc. It seems likely to me that few would. Though maybe we should be more accepting of difference?