Have Public Sector cuts now gone to far?

Faust

Are the wheels coming off the public sector?  Almost every day we read of yet another crisis in one of our public services.  We have the NHS deep in the red and almost at breaking point.  Social care with thousands of elderly vulnerable people not getting proper care and in many cases no care at all.

The latest story is the crisis in policing with many crimes not being investigated, too few officers and enormous workloads.  The justice system is clogged up with cases due to many courts having been closed and a lack of capacity at the ones that are left.  Prisons aren’t being run adequately to the point where the prisoners now appear to be in charge.

Local councils are now doing less and less because they simply haven’t got the resources.

Most parts of the public sector have suffered swinging year on year cuts since 2010 with staff on a total pay freeze.  Has austerity gone too far in that services we all rely on are beginning to collapse?

In response to the above we get pompous ministers telling anyone who will listen that the government are putting money into whichever service is being discussed at the time.  What they don't say is that in most cases the money is not new money but recycled from other budgets.

Pacifico

I'd say that the problem with policing is poor prioritization - if you haven't got the resources to investigate current crimes perhaps you need to cease investigating people who are long dead.

nheather

Out of interest what public service has had a total pay freeze since 2010 - I doubt there is a single public sector employee that falls into this category - but happy to be proved wrong.

By which I mean, a public sector worker whose salary has not increased since 2010.

Cheers,

Nigel

nheather

Look at this report about the NHS, makes interesting reading.

There is no doubt that the NHS is in trouble but it is not for the want of pumping money into it.

Look at the first graph at the NHS budget

10 charts that show why the NHS is in trouble - BBC News

Over the last 10 years the NHS budget has doubled, increasing at a much faster rate than ever.

So money is being pumped in, not cut.  The problem is that the spend is rising even faster.

Cheers,

Nigel

Faust

MOJ HMCTS HMRC plus a host of others. Government has also refused to honour pay progression pledges.

domtheone

We reap what we sow.

Population growth (look at one of the charts in that NHS report) out of control and we're not getting any wealthier.

Who's going to pay for it all?

Public sector pay has done ok in recent (years/decade) times.

Could employ many more PS workers if those at the top took a haircut.

Toko Black

That simply isn't true in real terms - if you read the full report it makes it clear that yes, more money is being put in, but the rate of increase is lower than before and is less than is required to account for the growth in demand from an increasing and aging population.

It's like claiming you are giving someone a pay rise and therefore more money yet the increase is less than the rate of inflation. In real terms that is a relative pay cut.

Enki

Prioritization, there's a thing.  Maybe Mays government might like to make this a priority - ‘Thousands of children at risk’ as Government breaks grooming promise
Still outstanding today, so not much interest in future investigations either...

Faust

The vast amount of PS workers are people like those at the coal face working for DWP HMRC etc. Their average pay is only between £18,500 and £20,500.  They are given a heavy workload with a ridiculous amount of responsibility.

We all know the likes of the Daily Mail, Sun etc. love to paint this picture of fat cat civil servants on large salaries and gold plated pensions.  The reality for most is that they tend to be women, many part time with average pensions on retirement of between £4,600 and £5,700.

There are civil servants who work in Whitehall then there are the rest.  Those at the top are a totally different species.

domtheone

That's why I said those at the top.

There are tens of thousands of PS workers on over inflated (and unaffordable) salaries/pensions.

If they were reined back in somewhat, you could employ many more front line peeps.