Housing benefit & private renting

[ivykaty44]

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/29/low-income-tenants-face-heat-eat-or-pay-rent-choices-study

The combination of private LandLords and housing benefits not keeping up with sky high rents is going to put more and more people on the streets

In my area a council property 3 bedroom is £130 per week rental or s two bed house £87 per week

Private rents are rarely under £700 per week for s two bed house

There just aren’t enough social houses to rent and private ll charge massive rents, you can rarely rent unless two of you or earnings over £25k

What are people to do?

neshoma It is the governments problem when they've promised and allocated hundreds of thousands of pounds for rural areas like mine to fund broadband/mobile/landline (yes there are areas in the uk still without landlines) access and then not delivering. Then other organisations are removing the services from the area because rates are so high and they see the funding is in place and some idiot somewhere assumes the problems have now been solved when they haven't and like you there's nothing wrong with a 40 mile round trip for food/appointments/money/services.

It's a very serious problem.

Can you imagine being moved somewhere with no phone, no internet, no shop, no means to meet anyone (literally there's three houses there, one is a holiday home, the other ranted at her for being benefit scum) and expected to arrange taxis to take you to appointments with no phone or means to do so? What's she supposed to do when moved to universal credit?

It wasn't a choice. That's what was available, unless you think she should have slept in a doorway because she didn't qualify for hostel.

It's the governments responsibility because they insist everything's online, that means they must make sure every single household can access the Internet. I live in a populated, for my county, village. I get one bar of 3G. 2g has been switched off here now - phoning is a bloody nightmare. When radio goes digital it won't work anymore. The emergency services must use the same band my radio does - I'm listening to classic fm, everytime the police/ambulance/fire go past I hear their conversations because that's the only band available here.

Apologies for my tone, that's not intended as a rant!

Oh and there's no home delivery round here either - gps is useless here, most of our roads aren't even mapped.

becca - without outing yourself too much where do you live? I didnt realise there were places as comms poor

@lavendersunflowers
I said exactly that on another post, it costs £3000-£5000 to move. If your renting that could be every year and not at your choice. It was met by a lot of non believers at the figures. But it’s true, with deposits, fees and all the other costs associated it adds up.
The mumsnet standard “move somewhere cheaper” is not as easy as it is to type. That’s before you’ve looked at how far moving somewhere cheaper is. So it’s new jobs, new schools (kids in important exam years, oh well), away from support and free childcare or away from aging relatives that need you.
Just moving to the next town doesn’t cut it anymore, your talking hours and miles.

I can back Becca up with what she’s saying. There are definitely places in Wales where it is exactly as she says and you have to traipse down the street to try and get some mobile phone signal, no bus stops, no shops, just houses.

Everything is online now, it’s very difficult to find out about government support as they tell you to “look online” or “download it from the website”.

There is little incentive for private companies to solve these issues as there’s no profit in it. So why bother.

I'm in mid Wales. I know that's a huge area - I'm not saying that to not be outed but that's the main area where there are massive blanks for technology. Good place to come to get away from everything though

Looking on a map for signals shows parts aren't covered, however, those maps don't take into account difficulties caused by mountains. According to EE for example I should be able to get 4G full signal and broadband and be able to stream their tv service, in fact I frequently get stuff from them asking me to upgrade. I've got one bar of 3G. Even using MN can be a pain with that due to the auto playing ads.

It's not only in Wales it's happening in other rural parts of the country as well and the relevance is there is social housing in these areas, you just need to be prepared to spend most of your time driving! No popping down the road for a pint of milk or even getting shopping delivered.

Everything is online now, but the point is not everwhere geographically is and there is housing, quite a bit, which people from other parts of the country are encouraged to accept without knowing the reality of the situation they are getting themselves into.

How many people in the uk really know there are dead zones for technology? How much money is being poured into solving this issue when some (impact of mountains on signals for example) cannot be solved? Places, like where my friend is being empty for ages and her ending up there struggling because it only needs to be accessible - things like a GP or a shop or anything other than houses are not necessities. I worry hugely about her welfare.

UC is making the entire problem worse.

Our area is now live for UC. I've no idea how people moving here from places like Birmingham (where places are advertised to those on waiting lists) will manage. Our area are refusing applications not online. My friend will have nothing when she gets switched.

In a year, maybe a couple, I won't be able to go online where I live anymore because the technology will have evolved beyond it.

Money spent has just been wasted.

Used to live between Brecon and hay on wye. Tech services were horrendous and it was an hours walk to the nearest bus stop which ran once a day to Cardiff and back. Hour and a half walk to the nearest drs- let’s hope you don’t need an emergency appointment eh. No taxi service.

But everyone is supposed to move to a 'cheaper area'. With what, brass buttons? Quit your job so you can go to this cheaper area that has limited employment and transport?

I’ve said it before on the ‘just move’ threads
Once people move to the cheap area the price goes up, the locals are priced out so they go to a cheap area which pushes the price up. It goes on and on. Yes not everyone is moving to the same cheap area so it is diluted but before you know it you see a hipster cycling down your road on a penny farthing (this happened to me) and you know your kids won’t be at their school for much longer.

That’s before you factor in the extra social services costs to the elderly and relatives that need care

@Becca19962014 It's not much of a choice, in South Birmingham whole estates are being knocked down for private developments and those current tenants are taking priority for rehousing.

There is no cheaper housing in birmingham, even the shittiest area of the city I grew up in pulls in a higher rent than my out of town flat because it's on the bus/metro/train route to the uni and local hospitals.

It's absolutely criminal that as a society we aren't willing to pay for social housing to be built but will happily pour money into the pockets of private landlords via housing benefit.

But the people voting for this have everything to gain from this arrangement- so why would they want to change ?

Why is it the government's issue if people can't access healthcare, can't access services, can't get to work?

Are you actually serious?

Of course is the government's responsibility to ensure the infrastructure which allows people to lead healthy, productive lives

I’ve just searched for a 3 bedroom house within our local housing allowance

There isn’t one. Searched 10% higher. Still nothing.

LHA rates are completely unrealistic

Have found 3 at 15% more than local LHA. All absolute hell holes and all 3 say no “DSS” (which doesn’t even exist)

Dreamingofsun I believe Becca is in Wales, but I'm in Scotland and my parents are similarly 'comms poor' in a very rural area, I've also got friends who have parents who've retired in Cornwall with similar issues. It's really not that uncommon. My parents only got ch5 when they got a satellite dish fitted!

"however, those maps don't take into account difficulties caused by mountains." Highlanders have the same problems.

You can drive 10/20 miles in parts of Scotland and see nothing man made whatsoever apart from the actual road! Not even a road sign!

Limbo - as is also often pointed out on mn "move somewhere cheaper" isn't just 'not that simple' for the people moving, it also means 'menial workers' (for want of a better term) moving away from where they're needed.

My dad is early 70's, never learned to use a computer really beyond word processing, poor eyesight now, gets infuriated at the govts insistence not only that everything be done online but at the lack of tech support when it goes (frequently!) belly up!

I watch the last leg, John bishop was on recently and talking about how weird it was for him as a staunch socialist to meet David Cameron. It was then he says it hit him, people like Cameron when making policies that hurt the working class, the poor perhaps understand on an intellectual level that it makes them worse off but they don't have the life experience of EVER having been poor, so they genuinely don't get it! So they think it's a temporary 'blip'! Whereas those of us that have/are experiencing life at the sharp end know it can very much be the start of a slippery slope. I've been homeless more than once and almost bankrupt at one point too thanks to Tory policy. It takes YEARS to recover if you ever really do.

For me this was made GLARINGLY obvious when another Tory MP upon being asked where he thought people were supposed to put their furniture and belongings if a house move didn't go to plan. His answer? 'Well don't they just put it in their other house?' Without an ounce of irony!

I know of no campaign (which would admittedly be pointless, they always are) to force banks and insurers to allow landlords to take benefits tenants.

I also note the mumsnet issue with paying housing benefit to private landlords. Corollary - private landlords should therefore not accept benefits tenants. Is that what is wanted?

Even in urban areas people have an 8 mile walk to their nearest DWP by closing offices it save money but leaves the poorest in society who often don’t have private transport, the means to get to sign on.

I often wonder with data protection how a private LL can know whether there tenants are claiming HB, surely the law protects the tenants privacy

When you go through referencing they ask for pay slips and bank statements to check you can afford it. Our earnings weren’t enough for ours (despite already having paid almost the same amount for 3 years) so we had to send copies of all our savings accounts. They also speak to your employer.
So presumably that’s how they see your on benefits.

I got into an argument recently with my local council. Bus passes needed renewing, however they hadn’t told the pensioners they wouldn’t be auto renewed they would need to reapply.
Their response, we advertised it on social media.

Ahh yes every pensioner has internet and social media

What people also forget when they say 'move to a cheaper area' is that as well as jobs/ transport issues, the lha will also be less.

So if eg your rent is currently £150 and you pay a £30 top because lha is 120, if you move to somewhere the rent is £120 and lha £90 you'll still be paying a £30 top up, so you are effectively spending money on deposits, moving costs etc to still pay an extra £30, for less job opportunities and transport problems.

People also forget that if you're working and low income, the lha is still considered the rent for any entitlement to hb.

So eg according to hb calculations, you can afford to pay £100 rent yourself per week. Lha is £100, therefore you aren't entitled to hb. Except the rent is £150.

We need investment in millions of social homes. To the point they are available for anyone with no other property that wants one. It would soon make a huge profit, not just because millions of people well above poverty levels as well as hb would be paying the government instead of private lls, but the hb bill would reduce. Plus all the side benefits, people would have more to spend in the economy, pensions etc. And all the benefits of settled communities, both in terms of the cost of services and individual benefits.