Cameron’s Budget cuts: Your 10 point Survival Guide

There is already a method of cutting Tax Credits: put difficult applications in the bin. They freely admitted they had done it, and that there was nothing I could do about it.

This woman whould apply to write for the tabloid press rather than Citywire.

What a load of total clap-trap (and her last rambling wasn't much better either).

January 22nd? More like June 22nd......!!!!!!

What a ridiculous and dare I say rather unimagintive list of money saving schemes. Gave me a giggle! Watch out kids, your pocket money is for it. And for the very small few who don't cut their own grass you might actually have to mow the lawn. Despair!

Maybe we could bath in water from the rainwater butt, or put a loaf of bread in the freezer and thaw out slice by slice or ferret through bins to find some scraps for dinner?

As for smokers, I would be more concerned about your health than your pocket.

If you're going to write an article about money saving tips at lease tell us something clever that we couldn't figure out for ourselves.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Lorna, I thought it was a good article. I read many of your articles. You have to write articles assuming that we are not all experts. If we were we would not need to read articles. It was clearly intended to be a basic article about what the masses can do to save a few pennies during the austerity drive.

For God sake I hope the government do the following:_

1.Stop paying any benefit for third and subsequent children One adult gets funding for one child,. Support marriage. End of.

2, Outright Minimum for those on benefits to prepare for a baby. A baby does not appreciate a £700 buggy. Let the mother carry the child if need be, use second hand kit. Use towelling nappies, and breats feed.

Oh No! I hear them scream, that's so cruel, babies need so much. Cojones I say, the baby needs love, breasts and nappies.

3.Stop extended maternity leave. Get back to where it was thirty years ago.

4. No individual homes on the state for Deliberate and first time Single Mothers. Try work houses with college.

5.Give the Fathers a chance to say who cares primarily for the child, and make the other parent pay or share the load.

6. If immigrants complain about cramped housing then don't offer better ( unless they are willing to pay for it), offer them the door (ports) instead.

7. Ram the fact, that Young men should be very very careful as to what they do with their sperm, do their throatsless they pay dearly for 16-18 years.

And that's just Child andChild Benefit matters

We could a hell of alot with disabilty, mobility and incapacity too. there are alot of claimants and so called named carers who do very nicely thank you, I recall one claimant who gets a new car every three years for a start , never uses it, so his daughter has it as efectively her personal vehicle. Nice eh!

Then there is Europe

Good Article Lorna!!!

No harm in reminding people of the basics.

Keep it simple by shredding the overspends item by item starting with the bloated Public Sector.

Freeze all pay except for front liners.

Reduce all higher Public Sector wage earners by 10% above, say £150k pa with an incremental sliding scale up to 25% reduction for non operational or non targetable roles.

I agree with gijane's viewpoint here too.

looks like he is preparing us for large tax hikes because he doesnt have the bottle to do what really needs to be done.

If he changes CGT he wont be getting my vote in 2 years or so time when this coalition goes down the tubes . Iif it lasts that long that is )

Does that mean I'll have to forego my annual subscription to National Geographic..?

Andrew - I'd vote for you!

Dennis - I don't think any Public sector workers should be earning more than 150k!

Personally didn't find the article any use.

I am always disappointed with the contents of articles wrotten by professionals because they rarely,if ever, come up with any new,exciting or innovative ideas to help tose in great need.

Provided it takes more from short term spectulators and 'Buy to Let' Gordon Brown followers, and allow for inflation, then it is fair we all pay tax at our marginal rate, less allowances.

Now you're got me going. If the tax payer stopped subsidising the Rental Sector, ie get rid of Housing Benefit all together then we would quickly see an end to the housing boom, the tenant would pay what they actually could afford, first time buyers would be back and we'd have a balanced economy.

There is no housing crisis, just a subsidised gravy train to give an impression of one!!

God this is so simple.

Oh yes, this is great. I'm getting to like this!!

Remove Child Benefit: the monies are mainly spent on tobacco, alcohol and trips to odeous burger places.

Remove the 1/2 million illegal immigrants and their 1/2 million others who have been here for over 10 years.

No government department immune from spending cuts.

Either increase employee contributions substantially or reduce the huge civil service and police pensions.

Reduce civil service redundancy pay from 3 years salary.

Reduce public sector pay by 5% this year and freeze for a further 4 years.

Simple, that's saved many, many £10's of millions a year.

Andrew I don't know where you are from, but I would gladly join your world.

I think I got carried away dreaming of how it could have been. Would be nice to get back to a balanced society though.

Thank you for your comments and interest Ambrose and Howard.

Yes Andrew, you speak for MANY MANY people.

Too much PC waffle these days.

You and I could sort this mess out.

It needs truly STRONG actions.

and some PAIN for ALL of us

We accept that... Great British fighting spirit eh?

Must say... article was like a MONEYWISE article.... lots of words, less on the knowledge front.

ps Anyone want to join my new party: THE GREY MATTER PARTY? seriously....

Not a very inspiring article when you think of the profile of most of the readers...

No new ideas at all for me ..........but remember folks...and here's a tip.....

Tell little Tarquin not to dump glass clippings on the compost...........they make a nice soup !

The threshold for Inheritance Tax should be greatly reduced. People would be motivated to spend their money now, which would boost the economy. Far better to pay tax when you die instead of when you are alive!

i do not claim any benefits my partner works and i look after my child has he is only two and a half i live on 108.00 tax credits a week and have 132.00 a month child benefit i pay half my bills look after my two children buy them clothes with it so if they scrap tax credits and child benefit this is not going to help me and other families in the same situation has myself why is david cameron targeting low income families i think if david cameron and all people in govenment took hundred thousand pound out of their pay then the economy would be in a better state.

Glass clippings! Aren't they a bit sharp when you pass them?

Message for Richard Edwards.

Don't know how much attention you pay to the news, but the outgoing Labour Government recently attempted to substantially cut the redundancy benefits which civil servants have accrued over some decades.

PCS the main civil service union applied for a judicial review and a week or so ago Mr Justice sales ruled that what the Government had done was ultra vires in as much as it was contrary to Section 2(3) of the Superannuation Act 1972.

So there we have it! An independent judiciary who won't be pushed around by the executive. I am one of those civil servants who have been accruing those CONTRACTUAL benefits over the last 20 years, and should therefore like to take this opportunity of applauding the High Court ruling. Tut.......that pesky rule of law eh?

If your chldren have flown the nest , or, you are living in a house with unused bedrooms, a good way to save money, is to switch to a water meter. We live in the SW of England which has the highest water charges in the country.

By switching to a water meter, we have reduced our annual water bill from £936 to £420 and we are using the same amount of water as we were before we went on to a meter!

Today people's life expectations are high but we all know if push came to shove and our very existence was at stake the Dunkirk spirit would prevail and the deficit would be wiped out in quick time.There lies the dilemma.Who would go back to black and white when they have experienced the full colour set. If you can motivate a self centred, individualistic and hedonistic consumerist society to give up their pleasures which have been instilled by the media then the government will be successful in its aim to eliminate the deficit.

The challenge of the century no doubt having seen the bankers get away scot free with huge bonuses for failure and putting us in this position in the first place.You cannot blame people for being sceptical when Cameron says 'we will all suffer...' .that is just an outright lie for the filthy rich will always be immune.If the brightest accountants can earn £600 an hour or more and still pay no tax what chance a fair share of the the pain.

Retired folk who have worked hard and saved all their lives to support themselves and not be a burden on others could be forced to fork out.

Nothing is impossible and I hope we can pull together and sort this mess out sooner than later.

Don't worry, they won't scrap tax credits, it's what 20% of the country live on.

Also, you say you don't claim benefits but that's exactly what tax credits are, just a different name.

And finally, can you not afford full stops either? You only used one in the entire paragraph!

David cameron is getting most of his advices from Rich few millionaires. Thats a great mistake in uk politics. Are we witnessing the return of the Tsars?Their empires are collapsing and they are pushing David to do wrong things in dangerous times.

Why is Cameron's Budget Targeting families, UK's children and their benefits Instead of Rich businesses. The collapse of US banks and other Insurance companies in 2008 and 2009 was caused by Few guys. Some of them are here in UK still leading some financial institutes..

Come November ,December 2010 we enter into the real recession. Last year was honeymoon. Osborne and Cameron's fifth gear to economic recovery is not going to help one quarter of uk's population in four years time.Mark my words.

This just preparing the public for the worst on June 22nd, doubt if much will be done. Tax will go up, benefits will be tinkered with but very will be done because of too many do gooders using children as blackmail or single mothers.

Irrespective of what will be done, high earners , mps, doctors etc will not feel the pain only middle income earners, workng class and pensioners will feel it more.

We skhould read more on what Clegg says or writes as he seem to get what ever he wants from Cameron. How many U turns has Cameron done since coming into power or even he came into power, so expect more with Clegg still around, both of them will not feel the pinch what ever is done. Hopefully it is not a statement by Cameron easier said than done.

Beware the 22nd of June the dooms day.

Stop all this nonesense of retiring early.

Many in the Public sector "retire" in their early 50's, draw a tax payer paid for pension then work in the private sector getting another pay packet. This is a national scandal. You either retire or you don't.

Cameron, don't allow them to draw their pension until their 65, or at least make them pay for their own subsidised pensions. That will keep them working till their 92 if they want the same standard their on now.

An end to the SUBSIDY JUNKIES I say!

What is not widely known is that public sector employees not only get a non-contributory pension (worth about 33% enhancement to their salary) BUT ALSO pay the contracted out rate of National Insurance contributions. This is 1.6% lower than the full rate. It is meant for those who are contributing to their own pension as the money will be redirected from the state scheme into their pension.

But this reduction goes nowhere. It is simply a sly way of giving them a hidden additional income and it should be stopped. It is a scam that is worth almost £2 billion per year over the public sector as a whole. Just making them pay properly into the NI scheme will put that much extra money into the Treasury each year to help in the current crisis.

Does she think she is writing for the WI or the Townswomens Guild ?

Citywire - get your act together and produce better content !

I understand why someone might feel it was beneficial to consolidate expensive loans into a new lower rate mortgage, but this ignores the fact that mortgages are secured against your property and credit card debt etc is not. If the amounts were large enough this could tip someone over the edge and result in them losing their home (instead of just being hounded to death by debt collectors)! I would really think very carefully before choosing this option.

Cut GPs pay - they are the highest paid in Europe and third best paid in the world.

Prevent hospital consultants doing private work in NHs time.

Vat on private medical care.

Remove GPs from NHS pension scheme (they call themselves independent contractors - so live up to the name).

I could go on.

Lets hear from the BMA about the the dodgy medics.

Stop overseas aid .Charity begins at home .

Stop wasting money on alleged global warming. we are responsible for 2% of CO 2 the rest of the world goes on developing regardless.

Do away with Lord Kinnocks British Council which spends its time and our money as a properganda machine for global warming.

For goodness sake grow up about private medicine without it the NHS would completely collapse.

There is something radically wrong with the costing of the NHS.Continental costs are considerably cheaper and better.

i think anyone who says scrap child benefit must be people who earn alot of money and can afford to do that. i work hard for my money and i am a single parent and i dont earn loads but i work rather than sit at home on benefits and i couldnt live without my child benefit etc so without it i would be forced to become a statistic. Why don't the MP's take a pay cut that would save u billions and we should look after the little people.

How much are celebrities and footballers paid for what they do they have ta breaks by setting up "companies" or by kicking a ball around a field and then flaunt how many thousands they have spent on a car this week it is disgusting but as usual the rich get richer and us hard working people are the ones who suffer and have to scrimp and save even more than we do when low and behold they stick ta and petrol costs up again. When is it going to end. This government and all the ones like it are out for themselves