To think being able to use housing benefits as a mortgage is unfair?

@womaninatightspot

The right to buy your council house was a major vote winner for Thatcher. Unfortunately she cascaded the problem down to future generations by first saying they could be bought at a discount, leaving councils selling off good housing stock under value, and then not insisting they ring fence the income to build more.

Will look at Martin Lewis website. But for all the reasons PPs have put up I can't see how this works especially as the economy tanks.

You're not wrong!

The world has gone mad - when someone can work 40+ hours at the likes of Tescos (£9.55 an hour, gives an annual salary of £ 19,864)
1 child aged 6 (no childcare or any other money in or out)

Is able to claim £55.35 - HOW ON EARTH can someone working FULL TIME not earn enough to live on???????????????????????????

**

Universal Credit
£55.35 / weekly
We estimate your monthly Universal Credit award will be £239.85.
If you made a claim for Universal Credit today this would be paid into your bank account on 15 July 2022. Our estimate is based on you receiving earnings of £1,273.11 and other income of £0.00 in the period between 09 June 2022 and 08 July 2022 (your assessment period if you claimed today).

This has been the case for a while. We have a council house and can purchse our home for a £84,000 discount currently (40%). So that would be considered immediate equity. With the mortgage being so low risk there are RTB rates that don't require deposits.

The lender will still carry out affordability checks and stress tests. Even with the discount / deposit in place, the lender isn't obliged to give you the mortgage.

Sound bite nothing more. Which mortgage provider is going to give a mortgage to someone on benefits? They can't get a decent loan to buy a washing machine.

That is not the root cause of the problem. That is a lazy way to kick rich people (and I am not a rich person so have no dog in this fight!)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61739816

Boris is just trying to earn brownie points and shut poor people up. The truth is hardly anyone on HB will be able to afford a deposit or the upkeep of a house.

I am on HB (single parent, 2 disabled dc, working part time), I don’t have £16,000 in savings, I have hardly any saving at all. The area I live in is an expensive area, I have right to buy my house but a 3 bed semi here is worth £250,000+ So £16,000 would not be enough for a deposit even if I had it. I wouldn’t want to buy unless I could pay for it myself.

What Boris has done is create more hate towards people claiming benefits, I’m sure it’s not what most people on benefits want, I certainly don’t. There’s no way I could afford a deposit or the upkeep of my own home and I’m sure many can’t.

Yep, it's our own version of subprime in the making.

Many lenders are global businesses though and they will be doing their own reality checks, not just doing what Boris says they should. You're right, 2008 will have an impact on the decisions lenders make.

If you are buying under right to buy you don't need a deposit, the discount counts as your deposit.

It’s a really piss poor policy. This government is getting completely desperate.

Punching down is a fucking ridiculous term.

The proposed new rules are on money saving expert website

The government need to stop facilitating people to stretch themselves to afford housing. They need to bring down the cost of housing instead. And the only way they can do that is by building houses (and banning 2nd homes).

I live in a real shit hole of an area and 10k still isn't enough for a deposit .

@Artwodeetoo I didn't mention people on benefits at all, let alone "punch down" to them.

I cant see how this would work really .HB being used for a MG ? Not many lenders would be happy about this! What happens if the interest rate rises for example .People on benefits would find it hard to cope

It's all bullshit, typical Boris deflection that he's conjured up overnight.

Absolutely.

So, ub gives tenants housing benefits to pay the mortgages of landlords - and this is fine but... it's a moral outrage for ub to give home owners housing benefit to pay their own mortgages?

I mean, it's an administrative shitshow in waiting and it is never going to happen but it seems the only principle you are against op, is the one in which would like to see landlords being the exclusive long term winners of the benefit.

How would that help anyone? Not everyone can move (jobs, schools, caring responsibilities), and moving costs alone are stupidly high at the moment too. The other costs in selling a house might be unaffordable too. And it ignores people like my neighbour, who is living in a mortgaged house but can't sell as her partner recently left her and is refusing all communications. She's struggling to afford everything as a single parent.

It's not a race to the bottom.

This has been the case for a while. We have a council house and can purchse our home for a £84,000 discount currently (40%). So that would be considered immediate equity. With the mortgage being so low risk there are RTB rates that don't require deposits.

Some Lenders use universal credit, child benefit, DLA, tax credits and pensions already. You can’t save more than 5k without having your benefits affected.

Houses are unaffordable for many earning 50k a year.

We receive some benefits as our children have disabilities. My husband works full time many hours we will never be able to get a deposit but I wouldn't begrudge others using benefits if they get them to own something rather than renting, many people do work and receive a little help. Others may be disabled and never be able to work like one of our children.

You can't - that's the point

Oh wow, great.

Many, many people are too tied to their job in a particular place, in the sense that moving a long distance to afford the home would mean a whole job uprooting, often then changing whether they'd afford the mortgage payments home insurance, life insurance, potential ground rent and maintenance fees (both separate payments for us, neither cheap), and so on.

Hopefully I don't need to explain in further detail why many people can't just do that. My partner's income is directly dependent on one organisation existing in one city. We had £15,500 through his savings and my parents gifted ten grand of that - I'm exceedingly fortunate.

If we upped and moved to where homes cost closer to half of what they are here, with my likelihood of paid employment through multiple disabilities causing his income to support us alone, he wouldn't get a job which would afford everything I listed above. And I don't know what universal credit top up would change in regards to any of that, except to add a whole bunch of admin and farce which neither of us (both adhd, struggle with paperwork and so on) cope with.

I wouldn't expect a tory to understand any of this, it's very unlikely to have been their lived experience. So do listen to those of us who do have that lived experience.

And DFOD to those of you who think all the many full or part time WORKING and/or DISABLED people shouldn't be able to access secure, safe and stable housing. Because come on, Wayne and Trish at number three who don't work but claim full benefits but have those parties and clearly aren't unfit to work in your opinion, are not likely to ever have savings in the first place to create the deposit, nor will their full benefits afford all the items previously listed (plus the usual monthly home and family bills) on top. It just won't happen. You are getting knickers in a twist over regular people genuinely trying to make ends meet and achieve a standard of stable and appropriate housing.

Don't listen to Boris. He was born into a family who could wipe their arses on dollar bills every day and still afford luxuries.