Scottish government overspend

[Cucumberino]

The IFS reports today (as Audit Scotland have done multiple times in the past) that Scotland must raise taxes or cut spending
as their current rate of spending is about as unaffordable as Peter Murrell’s.

What would you rather, tax rises or spending cuts? Which tax rises? Which spending cuts?

Spending cuts. Get rid of the additional scottish benefits, get rid of free uni, free prescriptions etc. I think nhs spending should be cut and efforts focused on improving the service for the past few years money has been thrown at it. It needs restructuring

Agree with Spending cuts. I don’t need free prescriptions for example - I happily paid for my annual certificate before they were free, and would do so again.
Free bus travel plus additional discounts for over 60s. Align it with retiremen5 age at least.
Every capital project over £Xmillion (not sure what the limit should be) has to have an independently verified business case, and contract reviews so we have no more Deposit Return Schemes, Ferry design disasters, hospital building projects mismanaged.

More tax will put more load on the dwindle minority, who may well vote with their passports.

Spending cuts, plenty of the Scottish only benefits are ridiculous and do nothing to grow the economy.

1 How about they stop throwing cycle lanes everywhere?

2 Stop allowing long-term projects - like the Charing Cross bridge in Glasgow to name but one, to overrun by years and millions of pounds, with no one being held responsible. They should be charging monthly penalties to these companies who go to tender promising the moon and it quickly turns to 💩

3 Scrap the free bus travel for teenagers and over 60s.

4 Scrap the baby boxes from the hospital.

5 Ditch the net zero aspirations.

Tuition and prescriptions are, I feel, a bit more worthwhile and justify the higher tax charges that Scotland impose. If they lose every single perk of Scotland, then how do they justify the already-higher-than-everywhere-else tax rates?

spend more on clamping down in tax evasion to bring in more money.

start getting errant fathers to pay for their offspring instead of the state having to do it.

stop free bus passes for young people under 22 and people aged 60 - the majority are working and dont need this benefit.

stop free prescriptions for items which can be bought for under £5in a shop (eg paracetamol or cough bottle etc if these things are still prescribed) as i heard the nhs are charged like a fiver for a 39p pack of paracetamol on prescription. madness. they should open up a 24 hour pharmacy in hospitals too.

scrap free tuition. It's incredibly detrimental to the students and the institutions - scottish goverment don't pay enough for it to be sustainable, so the unis have to take more and more and more non-scottish students.

Edinburgh is overrun by students (who don't pay council tax), the lecturers are expected to teach more and more students and the students get less and less teaching.

Agree with everyone else. Stop splashing the money around in the attempt to prove Scotland is better/different.

“Mansion tax” for houses purchased for over £2 million
Earnings over £250k as a new “top band”
99% tax on earnings of silly money amounts
Private jet tax
Workplace parking levy
Tourist tax across the country

I would have them review LBTT to try to lower it

Keep universal free prescriptions

Keep free tuition - but review intake numbers for things like teaching and medicine, as they are currently over training, meaning graduates can’t find jobs and are being driven abroad despite having had their training funded by Scottish Government.

Means test free bus travel (and I say this as a parent of two children who really benefited from the under 22's free travel, but we could have afforded to pay this)

Means test free prescriptions and as PP said stop giving prescriptions for cheap drugs, or change the system to make them charged at cost

Get rid of universal FSM - the tech is now in place that the stigma argument is meaningless. Again said as someone who essentially got a £40 a month pay rise when DC2 got FSM in P4

Scrap the baby box (although it's actually a tiny amount of money in the grand scheme of things)

Reduce eligibility for Scottish child payment or at least taper the value for large families

The IFS has been clear that current spending is unaffordable, and we know that if SNP don't get into Government the next time, the new Government is going to have to make cuts to balance the books. And who will shout the loudest??

My secondary school kids get on the bus for four stops to school because it’s free and they’re bone idle. There must be loads that do this.

If they binned FSM the kids still eligible for FSM would stand out like a sore thumb. The dinners sounds really grim. The only reason I don’t make my youngster a packed lunch is sheer laziness. I certainly wouldn’t ever pay money for those school dinners though. I would get my finger out and make a packed lunch instead. Something actually nutritious that they would eat.

The cost of administration of fee charging prescriptions/meams testing was more then the cost of free prescriptions when Wales examined it.

Tutuion fees I think they should give the option of scottish students paying rather then reaching a capacity and going no.

Personally I think they should scrap money spent on white papers for independence. Stop paying the bedroom tax as all its doing is costing money and meaning no incentive to shift to smaller accommodation.