Goodbye Spongers!

Op do fuck off

HB Calm down dear! I was brought up with my 3 brothers and sisters as a young child in a two roomed slum, swiftly moving on to a mansion-a two bedroomed council house! Having bettered myself I now live in a lovely area and am 'not short' as my father was when I grew up, (my mother died when I was quite young) and he was a single parent. You can't generalise as you have, about all these people on MN. I must say you are right about one thing I do like the odd Cafe Lait, can't stand the 4x4s! You should post here more often! you made me LOL!

Thrilled that families will be homeless you mean? No I am not thrilled, smug, pleased or happy. The plight of those less fortunate than myself does not make me feel delighted in the slightest.

Siasl, the thing about the benefit cap being £26k/year is that most of that £26k is made up of housing benefit - the family doesn't actually see that money, it's just money poured into the pockets of private landlords to pay overinflated rents.

If a family receives benefits capped at £500/wk, and £400 of those benefits go directly to the landlord to pay the rent, the family still only has £100 to live on.

If there were still adequate social housing supply - or housing was less expensive - then cost to the state of subsidising housing would be far lower.

'Personally I'd like to see more people starting their own small businesses if they can't find employment.'

Ah yes. How many small businesses had to shut down in the past couple of years?

Thrilled!

House prices have definitely been artificially propped over the last few years. It can't be maintained. There is a correction underway though many seem unable to believe that that may be the case. For the vast majority it will make absolutely no difference. The only people who it will affect are those who become trapped in negative equity and are unable to meet their mortgage repayments. An absolute tragedy for these families of course but long term more affordable housing will benefit everyone.

In this country there is unfortunately a huge vested interest in keeping house prices high. The baby boomers have made a fortune from house price inflation and big final salary pensions (that were never affordable). The main political parties pander to them as demographically they are all important.

The bottom-line is that the post WWII nation state with its "cradle to grave" benefits culture was never affordable. Unfortunately the younger people are now having to pick up this bill and are saddled with huge national and personal debts as a result.

I agree with Chil. The incredibly high house prices, particularly in the SE England is making it very difficult for normal people to live a decent life.

There is an expectation that if you invest in property you will earn money. No where else in Europe is this expectation. In Germany you buy a house to live in, so you don't pay rent all your life. If you are lucky your house will not depreciate, but no one expects houseprices to rise by 10, 20 or 30%.

It is unfair to the honest people who are for whatever reason claiming benefits to which they are entitled to assume that they are all living in massive mansions, funded by the tax payer. Most are living in poverty.

I think the point about benefit scroungers is a fair one. Under the new poilicy the tories are proposing the benefit cap will still be £26k/year or £35k/year in pre-tax equivalent.

That is clearly way too high.

I don't mind losing CB at all but in return I want to be sure that every £ my DH and I pay in tax goes to the right people ... and people don't need £15k more than the median wage in the UK in benefits!

So the figures are, this will affect 50,000 families and save 425 million pounds.

It's not going to affect the vast majority of working people who calim benefits, or even families solely on benefits. There isn't going to be major civil unrest over this because the majority of people aren't affected. It's not like the poll tax. In the same way I don't see the masses turning out for the poor hard done poppets earning over 40K a year who will lose their child benefit.

People will complain, but I'd be very surprised to see riots (or even sedate middle class marches) over these two measures.

"JUST LOOK AT THE FACES OF THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THIS WEBSITE, LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR, DO YOU SEE LOVE AND HUMAN WARMTH?......NO, YOU SEE CONTORTED, COLD, MEAN, MISERLY FACES, EYES AND MOUTH SCREWED UP, FALSE LOOKING CONTRIVED EXPRESSIONS, A LOOK WHICH SHOWS THESE PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY REALLY ARE, SELF LOATHING, UNHAPPY, INSECURE WORST OF THE WORST, LIFES REAL LOOSERS."

Could it be that it is actually your face you are stearing at?

PLEASE no one report Hb's post. I want everyone to experience the laugh out loud silliness of that wonderful post.

Without wishing to give you the time of day hbouquet, actually what Mumsnet is is a place where we can have rational, intelligent discussions about issues with a wide variety of people with different circumstances and views.

You're clearly not very comfortable with that. If you would like to join this discussion without the offensive insults and capital letters, feel free.

If not, trot on.

With regard to 4x4s ... do you have any recommendations?

Erm I think you might need to calm down a bit Hbouquet. MN is actually a lot more diverse than the media would have you believe. Many of us are on benefits or struggling to cope on low incomes.

As you can see from this thread, opinions like the op's are in the minority.

I pity your caps lock key lol

Wow Hb.

God, I could just fancy a chai latte.

Rantyknickers

High house prices are a key problem in this country. The older generation have made an (unearned) fortune from rampant house price inflation which is not taxed at all.

When we people realize that high house prices just lead to a higher cost of living, leading people to need higher wages and making our companies less competitive in the global market. Lower house prices are a good thing for this country.

Nonetheless the structural of unemployment in this country is only going to go up. This is the reality of globalization. Expect unemployment to be 20%+ in 10-20 years time ... in some countries in Europe such as Spain its already 20%+.

absolutely chibi, but it's the cost of housing that does that.

Everybody is under the impression that homeownership is a wonderful thing and rent is dead money. But actually all that has happened is that house prices have got so over inflated that most of people's money goes directly to the bank every month in interest payments.

Not into the economy, not into goods and services, not supporting businesses with their custom.

It's all bloody wrong my son!

No no no

I don't mean that as so many employed people need benefits we should take them away and I dont know eat them or flog them or both

But that something is wrong here

Wrong in that say a hospital porter and a cashier with 2 kids can't hope to make ends meet without government help

I don't want to deny them their tax credits etc

But surely it is wrong that they need them

does this make sense?

Anyone else thrilled that the family on benefits living in a £12,000 pcm in London house paid by us will no longer be getting that benefit?

Not particularly.

You work, do you Shakespear?

Who lives in a £12000 PCM house? Surely, even for London that is a bit on the steep side for a rent? I do not think a lot of people on benefit actually leave in houses like that(disclaimer could not find anything with price tag from OP so went for the next thing up. Next thing down in London was £3700 PCM.)