Living next to asylum seeker HMO, ask me anything

OK, some benefits they only get once granted LTR (which most of them are because we grant LTR at double the rate of the French).

But illegal asylum seekers DO get: accommodation, food, clothes, bus trips into town, doctors appointments, access to dentists, access to lawyers and pocket money to spend. All this is coming out of the taxpayers' purse. Once granted LTR, they also go to the top of the queue for social housing.

One way or another, it's costing us. When 781 mostly male asylum seekers arrive in one day (last Wednesday), it's a problem and minimising it doesn't help.

My partner worked for DWP and always debunks this. Illegal immigrants cannot claim benefits and they cannot legitimately work here either as they do not have the right to work. Illegal immigrants on benefits is a myth. But like Trump "truths", if it's repeated enough times it becomes fact.

The women get lost along the way and are mostly victims of sex trafficking.

That ends up as a lot more than some pensioners.
At least they can access the local foodbank.
Pensioners I know have mobility problems getting to the foodbank right in the centre of town. When they get there they feel intimidated by all the men hanging around.

Interestingly doing some reading about MEARS and its directors.

The private company, Mears Group plc was founded in 1988 in Gloucestershire, England. It was established as a maintenance contractor specifically focused on providing maintenance and repair services to the social housing sector.

This was at a time with a Conservative government and Thatcherite local government reform driven by privatisation, Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), and the rollout of New Public Management.

Bob Holt, served as its long-time chairman and CEO before retiring from the board in January 2019, has previously referenced working closely with key Conservative Party figures early in his career, especially Lord Ashcroft (the former Conservative Party Chairman and prominent donor) at his ADT security firm. Holt cited Ashcroft as a major entrepreneurial inspiration for building up Mears

Mears net profit end of 2025 is £46.2 million.

There is a board of 37 officers, including Dame Claire Tickell who has a background in the social housing sector.

For balance Mears do have a foundation offering grants to disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

@DownToTheGround @Jonesmaximus @nomas
Just to answer everyone I work in adult education so it's part of the enrolments that we take this information for e.g. an English class. I see these people daily. I am also aware that as per the policy it shouldn't happen but it does. I suppose it's either fraudulent claiming or maybe something like they think what they receive is UC when it's not? We all know that JobCentres can also be badly run and not always follow policies or perhaps claimants get away with more esp if most of their accounts are offshore. This is all checked when they first enrol though. As I've said we don't actually distribute the benefits we just take information including information about benefits received.

...so they leave their wives and children to be murdered by these mysterious forces? Yeah sure they do.

Do you welcome them. Kind to them? A lot come from very disturbing situations bwxk home and need welcoming. I cwn not even beging to atart to relate or have a clue what horrora they lived through. Families they have witness die etc etc. I hope they are welcomed and make the best life for themselves.

I haven't lived near one, but I have had 2 female refugee clients who were accommodated in hotels until they got refugee status because there was no other suitable accommodation for women. One was still a child, and was with her mother and siblings. The lone woman was raped by another asylum seeker, the other was scared to leave her room, along with the rest of her family.

This was at least 10 years ago though, so things may have changed. I'd like to think that there is specific, safe accommodation for unaccompanied women and children seeking asylum.

Once they got refugee status, they were accommodated by members of a local refugee support group until they were allocated social housing. They were eligible for social housing because they were both in "priority need" on grounds of vulnerability. Their experiences had been so appalling that their mental health was totally fucked.

One has done really well, is working, off benefits and everything, I don't think the other will ever recover from her experiences. I bump into her occasionally and she's really struggling, her mental health is totally shot.

Hotel accommodation is intended to be temporary with families given priority for longer term housing.

AI informs me that while in an asylum hotel each family member gets £9.95 per week with small top ups for young children.

This post is quite obtuse really. Not sure was it purposefully so or it was just a little brain fart.

A surveyor only inspects where it is possible and safe to do so. There was no safe way to inspect the loft. I only discovered the missing wall when I had to take down the ceilings to replace them.
I don't have just "any neighbours" I have neighbours who come and go, don't speak my language well enough to understand party walls, neighbours whose attention I'd rather not draw to this particular issue. There isn't just any owner - the owner lives in Spain and will not be contacted. That leaves me with MEARS. MEARS would make me run around in circles for months and then tell me to sort it with the landlord. THE END.
If I had a neighbour as we understand it then it would go like this: Identify a shared problem. The neighbour is then worried about fire and insurance. Agree to share the cost and get a builder in. Sorted. I'd love to have an Any Neighbour!

None of what I'm living with is just the normal reality of having neighbours. Do you really think it is?? Do you live next to 6 transient, nocturnal, drug using, destitute foreign males?

Do you welcome them. Kind to them? A lot come from very disturbing situations bwxk home and need welcoming. I cwn not even beging to atart to relate or have a clue what horrora they lived through. Families they have witness die etc etc. I hope they are welcomed and make the best life for themselves.

I have worked in the system and yes, it £10 a week per adult at I think £5.75 per child in a hotel. Food and Laundry is provided and so are nappies, basic toiletries and baby milk. Charities provide the rest where they can. Its the same in Mears Housing which is £50 a week per person so in your scenario is £ 1000 a month. But no bills , rent or council tax so its actually just £1000 a month to cover food, transport , toiletries and clothing. which is probably more than a non working family would get in the UK.

And obviously, no one is allowed to know that they've claimed asylum elsewhere before.
I once randomly asked a guy if he speaks German. His face sort of dropped in concern and he asked me panicked : How do you know me?!!
I don't know them but I know they like their Germany 😅

Are you telling me that if DH and I pitched up in the UK tomorrow with three young children, claimed asylum and plonked ourselves down in front of a housing officer the ONLY thing we'd get is £50 per week per adult and that's if we were not put in a hotel?

So if we were put in a hotel or temp accommodation of some sort, (which we would have to be by law if we had children with us) we'd only get £10 per adult because presumably food and all other basic needs are catered for? Laundry done for us, three meals a day etc? What about clothes? Seasonally appropriate footwear and winter coats? Phones? Nappies and formula for babies? Pens and pencils and school bags and uniform for the children at school. Is that expected to come out of the £10 per week? It's not, is it?

And if we were not put in a hotel but some other form of independent private accommodation, then how would that rent be paid for? And the utilities? The council tax? I mean clearly you can't pay all that for a family on £10 a week per adult. What allowances are there for children? I simply don't believe there would not be any. What if you don't have a washing machine? You could spend that £20 every week in the launderette alone. You can't live like that with three children.

In the case of the family you mentioned, I'm going to hazard a guess that the restaurant owner was his not only his cash-in-hand employer but also his dodgy landlord and some vague family acquaintance / distant cousin from the home country all rolled into one and that the family arrived on a visitor visa with the full intention of working for him, living in his property as a 'cousin' or 'friend' while claiming asylum. It makes little sense otherwise. Perfect sense if it was part of a game plan all along, however.

No way could anyone be expected to house, keep and feed a family on 10 quid a week per adult unless they take up illegal cash in hand work. The government obviously knows this. So basically you are telling me that the government is/was complicit in allowing people to work illegally and live illegally while their claim is processed?

Or are you telling me that the government is complicit in allowing children to starve and sleep on the streets and not go to school while their claim is processed? Because in theory at least, it's just not possible given the amount of Asylum Seeker Support Allowance to keep a family fed and housed. So which is it?

Because something simply doesn't add up here. I'm thinking this £10 or £50 per adult is nothing more than pocket money and all other essential expenses are taken care of. But that is never mentioned. Lots of people don't much or any disposable income at the end of their week or month, after essentials are taken care of do they? And they are not asylum seekers.

As far as schooling and the NHS is concerned, what you are saying is not true. Even if it is the official position in certain circumstances, it's certainly not the day to day reality. Children living in the UK (whether they were born here or not) will not be refused a place in school simply because of their parents' irregular immigration status. When a parent applies for a school place for a child they may well be asked for proof of address but they are NOT asked for proof of immigration status. And even if they were known to be 'irregular' their child would STILL not be discriminated against in education.

Neither is anyone refused treatment on the NHS or made to prove that they have the right to use it, or the means to pay the cost of treatment back if they do not.

I know it's supposed to work like that, in theory, but in practice it simply doesn't.

In my GP surgery there is are several folders dotted around the waiting area with pages in them translated into several languages that basically say 'rest assured you can safely seek medical treatment and or ask for health advice here irrespective of your immigration status, no fees/charges, no questions asked and no ID necessary.'

I just can't vote until a party stands up against this creation of privately owned Victorian slums!

One of the Landlords owns 15 mortgage free HMOs in my street. I did some rough calculations (after freedom of information request gave me the average weekly rent) - he gets at least 25 000 via the Housing Benefit System a month!! From a single street!
They are not giving that up willingly

Are you telling me that if DH and I pitched up in the UK tomorrow with three young children, claimed asylum and plonked ourselves down in front of a housing officer the ONLY thing we'd get is £50 per week per adult and that's if we were not put in a hotel?

So if we were put in a hotel or temp accommodation of some sort, (which we would have to be by law if we had children with us) we'd only get £10 per adult because presumably food and all other basic needs are catered for? Laundry done for us, three meals a day etc? What about clothes? Seasonally appropriate footwear and winter coats? Phones? Nappies and formula for babies? Pens and pencils and school bags and uniform for the children at school. Is that expected to come out of the £10 per week? It's not, is it?

And if we were not put in a hotel but some other form of independent private accommodation, then how would that rent be paid for? And the utilities? The council tax? I mean clearly you can't pay all that for a family on £10 a week per adult. What allowances are there for children? I simply don't believe there would not be any. What if you don't have a washing machine? You could spend that £20 every week in the launderette alone. You can't live like that with three children.

In the case of the family you mentioned, I'm going to hazard a guess that the restaurant owner was his not only his cash-in-hand employer but also his dodgy landlord and some vague family acquaintance / distant cousin from the home country all rolled into one and that the family arrived on a visitor visa with the full intention of working for him, living in his property as a 'cousin' or 'friend' while claiming asylum. It makes little sense otherwise. Perfect sense if it was part of a game plan all along, however.

No way could anyone be expected to house, keep and feed a family on 10 quid a week per adult unless they take up illegal cash in hand work. The government obviously knows this. So basically you are telling me that the government is/was complicit in allowing people to work illegally and live illegally while their claim is processed?

Or are you telling me that the government is complicit in allowing children to starve and sleep on the streets and not go to school while their claim is processed? Because in theory at least, it's just not possible given the amount of Asylum Seeker Support Allowance to keep a family fed and housed. So which is it?

Because something simply doesn't add up here. I'm thinking this £10 or £50 per adult is nothing more than pocket money and all other essential expenses are taken care of. But that is never mentioned. Lots of people don't much or any disposable income at the end of their week or month, after essentials are taken care of do they? And they are not asylum seekers.

As far as schooling and the NHS is concerned, what you are saying is not true. Even if it is the official position in certain circumstances, it's certainly not the day to day reality. Children living in the UK (whether they were born here or not) will not be refused a place in school simply because of their parents' irregular immigration status. When a parent applies for a school place for a child they may well be asked for proof of address but they are NOT asked for proof of immigration status. And even if they were known to be 'irregular' their child would STILL not be discriminated against in education.

Neither is anyone refused treatment on the NHS or made to prove that they have the right to use it, or the means to pay the cost of treatment back if they do not.

I know it's supposed to work like that, in theory, but in practice it simply doesn't.

In my GP surgery there is are several folders dotted around the waiting area with pages in them translated into several languages that basically say 'rest assured you can safely seek medical treatment and or ask for health advice here irrespective of your immigration status, no fees/charges, no questions asked and no ID necessary.'

I'd put a strict limit of so called "vulnerable" tenants per street, wherever they are from. If landlords around me couldn't milk that system, they'd have to house the professionals or sell up. That alone would make a huge difference to my street and my life.
At the moment there is literally nothing stopping my street becoming one large, teeming hostel. Could as well build a wall either end and call it done.