Daily Archives: November 27, 2015

Opinion – Britain’s Treasury Chief Drops Plan to Cut Welfare – The New York Times – John Gelmini

November 27, 2015 By in David Cameron, Defense Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, George Osborne, Growth, Healthcare, People, Politics Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
English: UK Police Chief Constable rank markings

English: UK Police Chief Constable rank markings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dr Alf via this New York Times article makes telling points but the “tactical retreat” over tax credits and the police will need to be revisited and in the case of the fraud ridden Working Tax Credit System will be very soon.

Working Tax Credit should have been axed entirely because under it a person can get a friend to buy an off the shelf company with some trading history and then employ them for 16 hours a week with the person who is “employed” giving their friend a bit of money which is then run through it and used to pay the person a nominal salary.

The person can then claim Working Tax Credits on the basis that their income is too low.

A Housing Benefit recipient can do some part time work as a carer, move her boyfriend into the rental property, have up to 5 babies and get the boyfriend to care for the children whilst not working. The Housing Benefit recipient limits her hours and then claims up to £135 gbp a week in Working Tax Credits.

Then there was the retreat over the police budget, which was wholly unnecessary because nearly 20% of the total police budget is kept as “reserves” and because with a total of 55 police forces in the UK, all of which are inefficient and overmanned with too many top managers and Chief Constables their is colossal waste.

The extra Stamp Duty levy will damage the buy to let market, push up house prices and encourage people to engage in buy to let abroad.

Osborne failed to “get real” with the public and the vested interests this time round but sooner or later all of them have to be given the hard word and in the case of vested interests taken on.

John Gelmini

Opinion – Autumn Statement 2015: George Osborne’s wooing of the grey vote masks a pension time bomb – Sam Bowman – International Business Times – John Gelmini

November 27, 2015 By in Austerity, Defense Policy, Elderly, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, George Osborne, Growth, Healthcare, Immigration, Local Government, NHS, People, Politics, Public Services Reform Tags: Leave a comment

Dr Alf has put forward another thought provoking post.

To be fair to Osborne, he was too easy on both the police and the NHS, where substantial savings are immediately possible, and he failed to take on local authority Chief Executives, who waste money on themselves through junketing, having too many staff and poor procurement.

The “elephant in the room” is not pensions per se but malingering pensioners, who do not take care of themselves and who cost the NHS and the rest of us, a fortune.

Just 25% of over 65s are responsible for 55% of the total local authority spending bill, which is consumed by Adult Social Care, and these same people malinger in GP surgeries up and down the country, and make the A&E crisis worse.

The police need to be reduced to a national force with a single National Chief Constable, the same applies to the Fire Commands. Currently, we have 43 English constabularies, 1 Scottish police force, 6 in Wales and 1 in Northern Ireland. Then we have the British Nuclear Police, the City of London Police and the British Transport Police. Police forces hold nearly 20% of the money they are allocated in reserves and operate within structures containing 20 plus layers of management, changed little since Victorian times.

Similarly, local authorities only have 32% worker productivity and in a tiny country, number 3,500 organisations with tax collecting powers each with a bloated structure headed up by an overpaid Chief Executive.

The NHS is the world’s 3rd largest employer, exceeded only by the Indian Railway system, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Yet in a country with an official population of just 64.5 million, it delivers the worst health care treatment outcomes, cancer survival rates and mortality outcomes of any country in Western Europe outside of Greece.

My criticism of Osborne is that in these areas and Working Tax Credits, a benefit riddled with fraud which encourages people to have extra children at taxpayers expense, he was not nearly tough enough.

John Gelmini