SunLife survey of 10,000 voters shows public wants:
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More than double tax cuts, with men calling for 181% rise
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Cut spending on older people by 31%
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Slash welfare by a quarter (£15.3bn more than Osborne is due to announce in emergency budget)
The research reveals that on average, people are happy to receive less financial support from the Government in their golden years in favour of more financial freedom and lower taxes today, as on average, we would cut state support for older people, including pensions, by over £48bn (32%) while increasing the size of tax cuts by 156% to £17.9bn.
And, while George Osborne is expected to announce a controversial £12bn cut to the welfare bill in his emergency budget, SunLife’s research reveals that the UK public would actually like to see him go further and cut benefits by a further £15bn, taking overall spend on welfare down by almost 25% from £110bn to £82.7bn.
Dean Lamble, managing director at SunLife said:
“As the Chancellor prepares to announce his emergency budget, these findings shows that the British public has a clear view on how they think the UK’s finances should be spent.
“With an ageing UK population, pressure on areas such as welfare and state pensions will only increase. But voters - even the over 50s - told us that their biggest priorities for the new Government are to reduce spending in these areas in favour of lower taxes and more generous health, education and environment budgets. The Chancellor and all MPs could benefit considerably by taking these views into account.”
SunLife’s research reveals that the nation wants the new Government to:
TAX CUTS more than double spending on tax cuts from £7bn to £17.9bn, an increase of 155%
WELFARE cut spending on welfare (unemployment benefit, job seeker’s allowance, child benefit and the minimum wage) by a quarter from £110bn to £82.7bn, a cut of £27.3bn – £15bn more than Osborne’s planned £12bn cut due to be announced in the emergency budget
OLDER PEOPLE slash spending on older people (pensions, concessionary travel, the Winter Fuel Allowance and social care) by almost a third from £150bn to £101.7bn
HEALTHCARE increase spending on healthcare (the NHS, social care and mental health) to £138.3bn, overtaking older people as the Government’s biggest Budget expenditure
EDUCATION boost education spending by 12% to £101bn, overtaking welfare to become the nation’s third biggest spending priority
ENVIRONMENT more than double the UK’s environment budget (renewable energy technologies and green subsidies) from £11bn to more than £26bn
TRANSPORT almost double the transport budget (spending on HS2, roads infrastructure and plans for renationalisation of the railway) from £20bn to £34.4bn
DEFENCE increase the defence budget (armed forces and the UK’s nuclear deterrent, Trident) by 14.5% rise from £36bn to £41.22bn
FOREIGN AID boost the foreign aid (supporting developing countries through grants and bilateral co-operation) spend by just under £1bn, taking it from £10bn to £10.94, a 9.4% rise
LAW & ORDER increase the budget for front line policing, emergency services and justice spending, including the UK court system byalmost £16bn, a rise of 53%
Gender divide
SunLife’s research shows that men and women have different views on how the UK’s budget should be allocated. While both would increase the transport budget, women are calling for a £9.96bn (54%) increase while men would allocate £17.5bn more than is currently forecast – a rise of 87%. Women would boost the healthcare budget by almost £10bn whereas men call for a more modest increase of just over £2bn.
However, one area that both men and women agree is tax cuts – both are calling for a huge increase in the amount dedicated to cutting taxes, with women looking for a 117% rise and men 181% - £12.69bn more than the current £7bn forecast.
Regional differences
Although the feeling across the country is broadly in line, with calls for lower taxes and cuts to welfare and pensions in all areas, priorities do differ between the regions. Voters in the North East are calling for the biggest increase to NHS spending of any region in England - £139.9bn while London would increase NHS spending the least (£136.49bn). However, Londoners would spend £36.30bn on transport, an 82 increase on the forecast and the most in the UK.
The south west has also allocated less than the UK average to the NHS (£137.39bn) but would increase the environment budget more than any other region, calling for it to more than triple from £11bn to £30.15bn which is 14.6% more than the rest of the country would allocate (£26.3bn on average).
The amount that people would allocate to education also differs between regions. On average, voters in the UK would increase the education budget from £90bn to £100.66bn, and while all regions would increase the amount spent on schools, Scotland would increase it by 15% to £103.76 – while voters in the North East would increase it by just 9% to £98.11bn.
The only other real difference is the amount each region would allocate to foreign aid – the current forecast is £10bn, and while most regions would increase this, with Londoners voting to allocate almost 40% more - £13.89bn) those in the North East would cut it by 8% and those in the East of England by 12%
Dean Lamble concludes: “These findings, suggest that more of us are happy to make our own provisions for the future, especially if we’re given more financial freedom through lower taxes. At SunLife, we believe that the financial services industry should take note and make its services more accessible to a wider cross-section of the Great British public, empowering them to take a greater role in their own financial planning.”
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