Social Housing - is there a limit for earnings?

[Dogreared]

So, I am asking as someone who was homeless for several years and earning minimum wage, working two jobs, and spent years blaming myself for the position I was in... Experienced all forms of homelessness during this time, was incredibly vulnerable with both mental and physical health issues.

Recently met someone who is a Band 8 salary within the NHS, and who's partner is earning 60k a year - they have been living in social housing (and now complaining they are not eligible for it in their new area they've moved to).

I guess I am really confused about the system and how it works. I was told there were no homes, it is the same area, and it has been through the same time period.

By the way - this isn't posted out of my spite, I ended up being incredibly fortunate and am now comfortable and have secure housing although on benefits and pay for it all from my benefits (I manage with very little to spare each month, but my house is long term secure).

I don't know if I just didn't fight hard enough looking back, or if this is how the system actually works? Are people allowed to keep social housing as they progress through their careers?

But loads of people have condensation. You just have to deal with it. My double glazing is shot but I sure can’t afford new windows. I got new central heating last year and it was £££££££££££££.

A social worker friend goes in a lot of sh properties. She was saying she feels sick at the heat in some of them, and all the windows shut even in the kitchen. The council are quite right, @iminsocialhousinggetmeoutofhere , to keep telling people to ventilate.

The local councils will try their utmost to discourage you to apply for social housing. I had a horrible woman give me a really hard time firstly trying to say I made myself and child intentionally homeless because I left my partner. Luckily the tenancy was in his name alone and he agreed to send me proof. She then tried her very best to get me to just claim housing benefits and rent privately. I stood my ground because I wanted security and not to be on HB indefinitely and she agreed to properly assess my situation. She agreed to add me to the list but then it was a wait as there were those in more need always ahead of me. Eventually I was offered a flat and some time later applied to be upgraded due to more children and was eventually moved to this house. This was over 20 years ago so I can only imagine how much worse it is now.

I agree, re condensation and mould. I live in an 300+ year old farmhouse style place and have damp mould and condensation I have to deal with constantly. I think some of it is down to our obsession with brick built buildings. Other materials are better insulated, cheaper and quicker to build.

I don’t think anyone is saying it’s the fault of tenants in sh - of course we would all stay put if we were in that situation!
in an ideal world, yes sh would be for everyone who wanted it.
we are very very far from an ideal world, and families are living in bedsits and b&bs whilst people with resources are in family sized sh. That feels so unfair.
I live (not in sh) in a fairly rural village. There are good 3 and 4 bed LA houses here, a whole row is occupied by elderly single or couples. There are local families living in one room in relatives housing who have been waiting years on the sh list.
the parish council built brand new 1 or 2 bed bungalows that were offered to the sh tenants, only one of them moved.
the rest wanted to stay in their family sized houses.
surely the council should have the power to terminate a tenancy if someone has been offered suitable local accommodation and not taken it?

Oh we ventilate! And as I said we also have to pay to run a dehumidifier. Our problem will never improve while we have the 30+ year old heating system with single skin radiators and old boiler chugging away and crap double glazing. Our bills were astronomical even before the COL crisis.

My point about the condensation and mould is, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be in these HA homes. We have substandard housing and yes we get that cheaper but it’s a trade off.

I live in shared ownership housing ( 50% owned by ha) and my neighbours is fully rented from ha , so social housing . Their situation is almost identical to mine, got the property as low income single parents but now have partners and have retrained and have dual decent income, well over the 60k threshold, but not moving on as it's still not enough to buy a local property as house prices in our area are so high. We all need to stay local for schools, elderly parents etc. I think the high cost of buying housing is what prevents people moving out of social housing, certainly in our area it does. We intend to see out primary school ( 5 more years) then move into the town where their secondary school will be where housing is a bit cheaper.

It’s not just the people who can afford to leave that are an issue. When I was waiting endlessly for a home I was very resentful of old people who I knew were sitting in a council house of 3 or more bedrooms and didn’t move out. There are elderly all over the country clogging up these homes and I don’t know what the answer is to that. I’m not old person bashing - that’s still their home. At the same time it’s not ideal.
The provision of more council run elderly accommodation would help free up those homes too. I’d imagine the older people in this situation probably can’t afford to heat these places anyway now.

Yes this is definitely true of our village. They appear to be building more 1 bed apartments for over 55s, I think this is the answer. A lady I know was enticed into a 1 bed flat with a sum of money , couldn't tell you how much though.

So the government don't build enough social houses and allow the housing market to over inflate?
And that the answer is to move old folk out of their homes whether they want to leave or not?
I think we should strive to be better than that and expect our government to be better too.

Hopefully noone wants them moved against their will!! The lady I knew was happy to move into her one bed flat, less maintenance, utility bills etc and no chance of any of her adult offspring moving back home 🤣

Let's not boot the Nurse out that's getting ready for another 12 hour night shift.

The system is well and truly broken, I have made my home beautiful and love living opposite a field of livestock. I can give my dc and gdc nice things because my rent is cheap 🙂

I am grateful for my house but it has its downside. I wish I could afford to buy my own. I dream of having my own home in a street and area I like. Being allowed to do things to it that HA won’t allow.

The property price greedy UK has made it so out of reach that I’d imagine I’ll be one of those old people house blocking. However, when or if I’m in that position I’ll ask the housing people to move me into a GF flat or similar as I won’t want to try to manage this house by then. Especially with its mould issues etc

It depends on the type of tenancy you have with the sh provider. There are secure tenancies but these have been stopped and only apply to sh tenants who have been living in the properties since 1981. As these secure tenancies don't exist now the sh provider may well ask for proof of earnings. It's not on really and just something else to thank the Tories for;!

I often think at the biggest thing the government could to to reduce poverty, aan all it's associated ill health, etc would be to have a massive council house building programme. Housing for the masses, not just the desperate (who can't even get council housing anyway). It would also longer term be a huge boost to the countries finances. This will never happen under the Tories, it would take money from private hands and put it into public hands, fundamentally against their ideology. Labour failed on this when they were in government as well.

@Kendodd i agree i just dont understand why no government addresses the housing crisis. It would alleviate so many problems in one fell swoop. If housing costs were less across all areas everyone would benefit.

Some housing associations have properties with rent set for key workers. So it won’t be as low as for usual tenants but not as high as a commercial rent. This is so they can afford to live in expensive areas, such as London, who need key workers. So they may have got that because of the one who is working in the NHS.

Including businesses as people would have more money to spend on things like restaurants. Also, I think were facing a housing time bomb. In the past, people who could afford to buy did and people who couldn't afford to buy got a council house, either way, they had a secure home. When they retired, home owners had paid off mortgages and so had minimal housing costs. People in council houses claimed housing benefit when retired which was basically money passed from one council department to another, so again, minimal housing costs to taxpayer. Now, those people who couldn't afford to buy are in expensive private lets. When they retire the state is going to have a massive housing benefit bill to pay to private landlords.

Excactly it would free up so much money, for spending, take pressure off wages, allow communities to flourish etc.
I genuinely dont understand why successive governments seem so reluctant to address the issue.
Housing costs are one of the biggest problems in this country and if something was done, things would improve in so many other areas.

The gov love a housing boom. They have been trying to keep it inflated for years with various schemes. If they make it too easy to find a home the bottom will fall out of the pricing and their precious economy will suffer. They’re more than happy for some to struggle as long as it benefits their greedy mates and the already wealthy.

@iminapickleofhoarding sadly this is very true.

Yet another 'innocent' benefits-bashing / social-housing-bashing thread.
At least (I think) we had a break from it over Christmas.

I think market rate doesn’t mean what you think it means.

to help, market rate is the average going rate for that property size/location/condition in that location.

council rates are well below marker rates . That’s why they are for people who can’t afford to house themselves.

@themachinehasstopped it's not a bashing thread - if you cannot tolerate people asking questions about a system then perhaps move away from threads that discuss it.

For the record - she's in a non-clinical manager role so if she's being given discounted NHS housing that could be given to nurses then I feel that really is shite, however, she didn't say that.

I guess my stance is that if we cannot give social housing to everyone (who wants it) then it should be prioritised to those who need it most - it would a complex system.

And 650 for a three bed property in inner London is well below market rates.

But that's because market rates typically include and element of mortgage repayment within them

Social Housing properties older that 25 years are effectively paid off. Therefore the income collected isn't having to cover mortgages.