Lowering the school leaving age to 14 and injecting young offenders with testosterone-reducing drugs to curb aggression are among a raft of ideas to emerge from the Treasury's public consultation on spending cuts.
The ideas have been left on the Treasury’s Spending Challenge website, set up to gather the public’s ideas on spending cuts ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
"Benjibunny" writes that "a large number of school children would be happier and more productive if they were able to leave mainstream school at 14 and start on an approved apprenticeship scheme which also provided further education".
This would increase the productivity of Britain by increasing the skill level of the workforce and save money spent on benefits by reducing the Neet (not in education, employment or training) population, Benjibunny adds.
Among the more controversial ideas was a proposal by "Horace" to save money by axing antisocial behaviour orders and "as an experiment, replace Asbos [for] teenage boys and young men with an injection used to treat prostate cancer. It stops testosterone production and lasts for three to six months. Loss of testosterone means reduced aggression."
Other ideas put forward include free childcare places for under five-year-olds. "THDuncan" argues that the cost of setting this up would be outweighed by an increase in tax revenue and reduction in benefits through the likely rise in the number of parents returning to work.
"Benjibunny" writes that "a large number of school children would be happier and more productive if they were able to leave mainstream school at 14 and start on an approved apprenticeship scheme which also provided further education".
This would increase the productivity of Britain by increasing the skill level of the workforce and save money spent on benefits by reducing the Neet (not in education, employment or training) population, Benjibunny adds.
Among the more controversial ideas was a proposal by "Horace" to save money by axing antisocial behaviour orders and "as an experiment, replace Asbos [for] teenage boys and young men with an injection used to treat prostate cancer. It stops testosterone production and lasts for three to six months. Loss of testosterone means reduced aggression."
Other ideas put forward include free childcare places for under five-year-olds. "THDuncan" argues that the cost of setting this up would be outweighed by an increase in tax revenue and reduction in benefits through the likely rise in the number of parents returning to work.
