It’s not fair those renting get more universal credit?

The op said an extra £200. That’s a huge amount for someone who rents from a private landlord to get. Your point about having children is redundant. The extra money is for rent.

Even if they are only paying off the interest, they are paying for an asset which in the past few decades have increased in value hugely.

Your post is really irritating. The benefits system is not an infinite pot of money. If you want UC to pay your mortgage you would have to pay a lot more in tax to cover the mortgage of every other privately owned house on the street too.

As usual - MNs get it all wrong regarding landlords

1. most landlord mortgages are interest only. There is no "paying off" the landlords mortgage as it doesn't reduce.
2. UC does not pay "extortionate" rental prices. Every local authority sets the rates for 1,2,3 bed etc properties and UC pays that rate according to the bedrooms needed. Those rates are often much less than the rent actually charged so renters have to make up the difference.

It is disgusting, hopefully at the next election people will consider this when voting.

Mortgage rates are normally lower than private rents. Anyway, if you think renting is a better deal than having a mortgage why not sell or relinquish ownership of your home and find a rental property instead?

The government will be quite happy to pay off landlords mortgages, as many of them are landlords themselves! Or their donors/pals are. It wouldn’t pay them to provide more social housing x

Many many claimants claiming UC with a mortgage will still get significant amounts of Uc which they are welcome to pay their mortgage with. As I've said numerous times already if they have kids on their claim they get a significantly higher work allowance than someone renting, meaning more of their earnings are disregarded before earnings start reducing their UC. So people with a mortgage benefit in this way.

It isn't better, both things can be wrong. It's ridiculous that it works out this way. Ideally, everyone who needed it would be able to access social housing that is owned by the state/social landlords.

I guess the landlord could just rent to someone else though. The fact the house is rented to someone getting UC doesn’t make a difference to them. The landlord might not have a mortgage!

But the £200 would be contributing to an asset that you own. You would (in extremely simple terms) retain the £200, just not as cash. And it would very likely grow significantly in value over the years, having been given to you by the taxpayer. Whereas renting is like other bills; once it's gone it's gone. It's absolutely correct that the taxpayer is not contributing to people's mortgages. It's not the same as rent.

That said, I don't think we should be contributing to the mortgages or bank balances of private landlords either. We need more social housing.

This. You could choose to go and rent if you wanted!

Yes I acknowledged that way upthread.

So posters point out we shouldn’t pay anyone’s mortgage but it’s ok to pay a landlords mortgage?

I guess they are paying some back in the form of tax on rental income, but yes it's a sorry situation all round.

The Government (actually taxpayers) are paying off the mortgages of millions of landlords...

But the state/taxpayer is paying off the landlords mortgage and buying them a house instead. How is that any better?

It's clearly not bonkers because you are paying off an asset that you will own and then for many years after that you'll have no housing costs. As others have said the government can't/ won't be seen to be paying off people's mortgages !

Well, rented? Til you “got back on your feet”. I’m not saying it would make sense to do that, but it’s like having savings isn’t it. You do have money if you own, it’s just tied up in an asset. Benefits aren’t really meant to be forever, unless you are unable to earn

Because I pay £600 mortgage. If I paid £600 but it was rent, I'd get £200. Can you not see how that is quite clearly actually very bonkers indeed?
I am quite grateful my mortgage is quite low in comparison to some areas, but still - how do they fathom that someone who pays the exact same as me, earning the same amount needs £200 extra a month 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

@nadine90

and live where exactly??

I don't understand why you think it's bonkers. Until last year when mortgage rates started to rise, many homeowners were paying significantly less in monthly mortgage payments than renters were. And like I pointed out upthread, those with a mortgage get a higher work allowance.

I'm not asking them to pay off my mortgage... Was just playing about with the calculator - for the same income and outgoings, if I was renting I'd get £200... Its bonkers how it's worked out.

Oh I can pay it - I was just messing about on the calculator and I just found it bizarre that for the same monthly income and out goings, paying the exact same amount of rent as my mortgage, I'd be entitled to £200 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ It's bonkers.

Yep, and that’s frustrating. They are essentially paying landlords to plug the huge gap in social housing.