Briskoda budget ideas

['daiking']

Move burden of tax from income to wealth.

Anyway you like, I'm not fussed, I don't have much of either but its certainly fairer than what we have now.

[mdon]

Personally I hope the put fuel, cigs and booze up. And increase Income tax. I'll be alright, and that's what Tories always do, then we'll see all the people crying about it. Including those who voted for them.

[cheezemonkhai]

Personally I hope the put fuel, cigs and booze up. And increase Income tax. I'll be alright, and that's what Tories always do, then we'll see all the people crying about it. Including those who voted for them.

Tories always come along to bail out a mess and try not to tax people to the max if they don't need to.

I thought it was the other colour that had a history of tax and spend?

Not supporting either side particularly, but you surely can't deny that we can't keep spending more than we earn as a country every year.

Edited 19 March, 2012 by cheezemonkhai

['daiking']

Personally I hope the put fuel, cigs and booze up. And increase Income tax. I'll be alright, and that's what Tories always do, then we'll see all the people crying about it. Including those who voted for them.

It's posts like this that make me want to hand the keys right back to Ed Miliband and say there you go, you sort it out. All I'd ask for is the world's biggest box of popcorn. Whatever the coalition does wrong, at least I can think to myself, "Could be worse, might still be the last lot". Even the paucity of talent in the current lot won't be an excuse to bring back the other suspects for a very long time.

[Padrino]

Reduce staff in all government jobs and cut their lavish benefits. I know that a lot of people will jump on me but let me give you just one example.

Recently the local council advertised bin collection job for annual pay of £ 21 000 plus all the other benefits. At the same time the local NHS looking for qualified nurses with a starting pay of £19 500....I rest my case.

[cjb]

Some benefits replaced by vouchers. You need food, clothing and a roof to survive. You don't need contract phones, Sky and fags. If you can afford contract phones, Sky and fags you're getting too much benefit money. Less cash to claimants.

Housing benefits paid directly to landlords like it was before.

Compulsary education as aprt of benefit requirements. You will learn to read and write so you can work.

This. Definitely. I'm leftie at heart, but benefits are for essentials. My previous thoughts on this have been to provide food, clothing, shelter, a bus pass, postage costs, basic heat/light so no-one has to be cold, or go hungry, and can look for work if they are healthy enough.

No automatic housing for pregnant teenagers.

Give automatic *housing* but not a house. Space in a clean, well run hostel perhaps.

My thoughts? Tax high incomes, but make the threshold high- say over 100K, rather than hitting people that just earn very good, rather than lots of money. Invest in public transport that works and is affordable. Freeze fuel duty, tax large corporations that wipe out small business effectively.

[gadgetman]

It's posts like this that make me want to hand the keys right back to Ed Miliband and say there you go, you sort it out. All I'd ask for is the world's biggest box of popcorn. Whatever the coalition does wrong, at least I can think to myself, "Could be worse, might still be the last lot". Even the paucity of talent in the current lot won't be an excuse to bring back the other suspects for a very long time.

This gov seems to be about privatising everything and selling everything to the private sector.

['daiking']

This gov seems to be about privatising everything and selling everything to the private sector.

Everything?

[cjb]

This gov seems to be about privatising everything and selling everything to the private sector.

It's always their way. It works so well too. *cough* railways*cough*

[gadgetman]

Everything?

Roads, forests, back to work schemes, NHS.....

[mdon]

Reduce staff in all government jobs and cut their lavish benefits. I know that a lot of people will jump on me but let me give you just one example.

Recently the local council advertised bin collection job for annual pay of £ 21 000 plus all the other benefits. At the same time the local NHS looking for qualified nurses with a starting pay of £19 500....I rest my case.

Can you link the advert please, it's just because I don't believe you.

[VWD]

Oh and benefits would reduce by 2% each month for the likes of jobseekers etc until lower limit of 10% of the full awarded amount reached. Protect some for the vunerable and those unfit to work.

Free childcare for anyone working more than 16 hours a week earning less than the average yearly wage.

Hopefully it'd encourage people to work.

Great, I'm on Pension credit , and saw a part time ( less than 20 hours ) job loking for qualification I could provide. Now I'm 64 , but it was an job easy on the heart.,in a college, where I felt I could help oit with my maths skills. Then I had a chat with a beneit advisor. My working hours would be 19 per week, on four days a week staring at 9AM. This meant I couln't use my bus pass, and having to pay aprox £2 per trip . Thats eight pound -so net gain = aprox £2 , because regulations alow for a £10 disalow. So WHERE'S the incentive ,as this also applies to those on JSA ?The £10 disaow had been with us for abiut 20 years, and tey wonder why thee's so many part time jovs still looking for applicants .

[apd007]

Reduce corporation tax by 2% in the Midlands, south west and northern England will be cheaper than the south east.. Reduce (or even scrap!) the minimum wage (controversal I know). Keep current personal tax and NI contributions at their current levels - for this budget anyway. Lower fuel duty by 10p a litre and leave it alone.

Then, I would leave the budget alone for at least 2 years - making NO changes. Give the economy chance to stabilise with all the current changes the government is pushing through. Also, if the government can't just raise tax when there is a shortfall then they might have more incentive to really reduce government operating costs.

['daiking']

Roads, forests, back to work schemes, NHS.....

Is that it? Not sure where you are drawing a line between out-sourcing and privatising. I don't know that roads, unemployment schemes and the health service will be any more privatised than they already are through the use of PFI which funded a lot of infrastructure investment over the previous government nor the use of people like A4E or the people who do the health assessments for the DWP (names escapes me) which is another long standing arrangement. Emma Harrison, to name but one, was very rich off of the back of the taxpayer long before the CamClegg bro-mance came along. As for the forestry issue, I thought there was a u-turn on that sell off although not before it emerged that Labour had sold off around 15% of the held land previously. You failed to mention Royal Mail but again the previous government was moving that way for a long time, why else, employ Crozier? And to be fair Royal Mail must be one of the few things that actually would suit privatisation.

So on this issue, I fail to see the clear blue water between the parties. It could all be done in a responsible fashion but I unfortunately the political will to re-invest the profits into BMWs and monogrammed verjazzles is too great. That is an ill wind.

['daiking']

<p>

Reduce corporation tax by 2% in the Midlands, south west and northern England will be cheaper than the south east..

Not unlike Europe, a economic policy based upon one region (Germany for them, the London and south east for us) is asking for trouble. Wages, taxes, interest rates perhaps even currency levels between regions will help redevelopment. Quite how a government will manage that sort of transition is anyones guess. My guess is badly.

[mdon]

You are nobody to me, I don't have to prove anything to you.

I'm not trolling, I just know that no council in the land pays its bin collectors £21k, perhaps if it was a driver and supervisor post I could believe if, out bin collectors were on £6.90 per hour when I left. Contrary to what people think the vast majority of public sector workers ie council workers etc are paid less than the private sector, I do admit there are some high paid non jobs in the public sector and I would like to cut them out straight away but not all public sector workers are alike.

[Padrino]

Looks like you were underpaid..at the moment the street sweepers in Aberdeenshire are on £16000.00 a year. On 37 hours working week this is £8.31 an hour...... How many cleaners you know working on more than minimum wage, without benefits, pension or everything else that the council provide?

http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=53148912

Regarding trolling...yes you are. From the above posting is clear that you know precisely what is going on in the local councils across the country but you just can't resist to troll around.

I will repeat again, in case you've missed it the first time:

GET A LIFE.

[Chronicbint]

Its not trolling just because someone doesn't believe you.

[Padrino]

Its not trolling just because someone doesn't believe you.

If you read his response you will see that he was working for his local council, so he had the first hand knowledge about everything going on behind the closed doors. He would like the public to believe that the "poor" council workers are very low paid, but he forgot to mention about all the benefits, extended paid holidays that NO ONE in private sector get, not to mention the pension that a lot of people in the private sector could only dream off.

Just ask him what % of your council tax is redirected to cover pension pod for the council.... If he is a honest person he will tell you, but be ready for a shock. If you pay £120 a month in council tax only about 20% are for real services like, water and sewerage, the rest is going to all the pen pushers.

Just look at your council bill, it should be itemised and tell you exactly how much you pay for services received and how much goes to the council.

In my case from £1343.62 for the year starting in April £993.78 are for the council and the remaining £349.94 are actually for service received.

Ask someone that is on benefits how much they pay for council tax...about 22/23% of what you paying. How come?

[mdon]

Looks like you were underpaid..at the moment the street sweepers in Aberdeenshire are on £16000.00 a year. On 37 hours working week this is £8.31 an hour...... How many cleaners you know working on more than minimum wage, without benefits, pension or everything else that the council provide?

http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=53148912

Regarding trolling...yes you are. From the above posting is clear that you know precisely what is going on in the local councils across the country but you just can't resist to troll around.

I will repeat again, in case you've missed it the first time:

GET A LIFE.

Long way off 21k, I am replying to your original post because I believe you are wrong, I am not trolling, if anyone is, you are by making posts that you know will start an argument hence why you even stated in your post that people will probably jump all over you.

[Padrino]

Long way off 21k, I am replying to your original post because I believe you are wrong, I am not trolling, if anyone is, you are by making posts that you know will start an argument hence why you even stated in your post that people will probably jump all over you.

Yes people like you who work or have worked for the council and will do or say anything to protect their fragile status because more and more people see the truth. Overpaid, non productive pen pushers, sucking our tax money and NOT providing services. This is the reason why they are jumping against private company, because if you work for a private company you actually have to work, every day and every hour, not having a easy life in the local council office.

[mdon]

If you read his response you will see that he was working for his local council, so he had the first hand knowledge about everything going on behind the closed doors. He would like the public to believe that the "poor" council workers are very low paid, but he forgot to mention about all the benefits, extended paid holidays that NO ONE in private sector get, not to mention the pension that a lot of people in the private sector could only dream off.

Just ask him what % of your council tax is redirected to cover pension pod for the council.... If he is a honest person he will tell you, but be ready for a shock. If you pay £120 a month in council tax only about 20% are for real services like, water and sewerage, the rest is going to all the pen pushers.

Just look at your council bill, it should be itemised and tell you exactly how much you pay for services received and how much goes to the council.

In my case from £1343.62 for the year starting in April £993.78 are for the council and the remaining £349.94 are actually for service received.

Ask someone that is on benefits how much they pay for council tax...about 22/23% of what you paying. How come?

The council gets most of its funding from central government, council tax is about 1/4 of the annual budget of the borough council. Your council tax pays for not only the borough council (street cleaners, benefits, sports centres etc) but also your town council (if you have one) county council (roads, schools, social services) police, and fire service. It's all broken down on your bill for you to see.

As for pensions, when I was working at the council (I left Feb last year) my pension contribution was 7% from my wage and the council paid 18% of my wage. Our LGPS was not in deficit either. It may be now though, I don't know, I transferred my pension out to my new job.

[Padrino]

So following your post, you had equivalent of 25% of your wage in total as a contribution to your pension......show me just ONE Private sector worker with the same benefit, just ONE.

Edited 20 March, 2012 by Padrino

[mdon]

So following your post, you had equivalent of 25% of your wage in total as a contribution to your pension......show me just ONE Private sector worker with the same benefit, just ONE.

My mate who worked at smiths, his pension was based on 70ths so would recieve 50% of his final salary after 35 years service. Or a work mate who was in volvos pension scheme and was made redundant in 1993, after 22 years service. His pension today will be worth 5,500 approx when he draws it in 18 months when he turns 65.

I'm not saying the LGPS isn't a bloody good pension but there are others out there in the private sector just as good.

Also it's worth noting that I had 18% of my wage paid in for me, the other 7% I paid out of my own pocket.

[Padrino]

You are bringing tears to my eyes, you poor soul....you had to contribute 7% of your own pocket..... Today some hard working people couldn't manage 7% combine pension contribution.

I do appreciate that you finally came around to admit that:

I'm not saying the LGPS isn't a bloody good pension but there are others out there in the private sector just as good.

Perhaps now you should share all the other secrets of the good council life as well?