FACTBOX - Conservatives sketch deficit reduction plans

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - The Conservatives set out plans to cut public spending by 23 billion pounds by 2015 if elected as both main parties come under pressure to say how they would curb a gaping budget deficit.

Below are some of the party's shadow Chancellor George Osborne's main proposals laid out in a speech in Manchester.

* ONE YEAR PUBLIC SECTOR PAY FREEZE

Osborne promised to freeze pay for over 4 million public sector workers in 2011-12. The remaining 1 million -- the lowest paid and earning less than 18,000 pounds -- would be spared. Serving army personnel on duty overseas would also be exempt.

The Conservatives calculate this would save 3.2 billion pounds assuming wages would have gone up by 2.4 percent across the public sector.

But it is hard to judge how much of the projected savings are real given they are based on an assumption of what might be. The Labour government's policy has been to base pay deals around a 2 percent inflation target.

* EFFICIENCIES

The Conservatives are proposing to reduce spending on centralising bureaucracy by 2 billion pounds a year.

They also propose cutting back-office spending by 1 billion pounds a year.

For years, the Labour government has also been announcing so-called efficiency savings as such programmes are the most politically easy to announce but harder to achieve.

* CUTTING BENEFITS

- The Conservatives want to stop paying tax credits to those on incomes over 50,000 pounds by starting to means test the family element of the child tax credit at a lower threshold.

Currently, households on incomes up to 58,000 pounds can claim tax credits and the Conservatives say this move which could cost some families 10 pounds a week would save 400 million pounds a year or 2 billion pounds over the next parliament.

- The Conservatives propose cutting benefits by 25 pounds a week for anyone on incapacity benefit who fails a new work test. They say this would save more than 1 billion over five years though 600 million pounds of this would be ploughed back into work schemes.

- The Conservatives have proposed stopping new spending on Child Trust Funds for better off families. Under the current scheme, all children born in the UK receive a voucher worth 250 pounds to encourage savings and investment.

The Conservatives say they will keep the arrangement for disabled children and the poorest families. The Institute of Fiscal Studies say this would save 300 million pounds a year, or 1.5 billion over the parliament.

PENSIONS

The Conservatives have proposed that the state retirement age be raised to 66 from 65 from 2016 for men and from 2020 for women. It is currently expected to go up in 2026.

The party said this long-term measure could save the public purse 13 billion pounds a year once fully implemented.

They have also called for public sector pensions to be capped at 50,000 pounds a year.