High joint income and in social housing with no plans to buy. Celebrate or selfish?

[SocialHousedNHappy]

I’ve been wondering about for some time and completely understand the dire and desperate situation that many people and families find themselves in. But… I hate the way that social housing is seen as only for the most desperate, when it was introduced as a housing option for all.

My household brings in a healthy income and we pay less than 10% to our monthly rent. This means we get enjoy a modest lifestyle and put some money aside for adult DC for when they’re older - they can then choose to buy whatever they fancy, car, house deposit, uni, whatever as will be their choice.

I hate that people seem to think that I should give up my secure tenancy and move into private rent. Looking on rightmove, a comparable house would be around 3x what I’m currently paying in rent, and to be honest, I wouldn’t move to private rented ever again. But why do people react as thought I’m doing something wrong, in the same way as they think of benefit cheats? I think the govt should be put under pressure to build more social housing - proper social housing, rather than the current situation where people are pit against each other and blaming each other for what is clearly a government failing.

I don’t want to sound like I’m gloating, because I’m not, but I don’t see why I should feel bad and not celebrate the life and comfort that my social housing has allowed me to enjoy.

I’m genuinely interested to hear if anyone agrees and feels the same.

You must be a, under the age of 40 or

b. privileged enough not to experience this but here goes anyway.

I moved into my one bedroom flat in 1994 With the man who became my DH in 1998. Rent was £48 then

I was signing on at Job Centre. I was applying for jobs that were paying £50 a WEEK. And no that is not a typo and no it was not a training placement as some on here have insisted in the past and tried to gaslight me over , £50 a WEEK when the rent was £48 This was before minimum wage AND NO IN work benefits then UNLESS YOU HAD KIDS. I would have had £2 left to pay for everything else after rent had been paid. THIS is why the minimum wage and in work benefits had to be brought in for everyone on low pay. Not just those who had reproduced. And to pre empt "what about your DH" He was too ill to work. But at that point deemed not ill enough for disability benefits.

I really am not privileged, I grew up in a single parent family, disabled mother, dead father, in a council house. My mother owns her house now, she isn’t still in it. A family live there now.

Deserving once doesn’t mean deserving always.

My mother ran a business from home. Council tenants are not all feckless and OP and her ilk are not cleansing estates of robbers and thieves by staying in a home she doesn’t qualify for any longer.

Was this a council flat you were in? If private, wouldn’t it have been nice to move somewhere cheap and secure? I’m sure it would have done. OP is blocking that by sitting in a house she doesn’t qualify for, which someone like yourself would have benefitted from. You are arguing against yourself.

I don't know how you can watch the news, see families crammed in one bedroom B&Bs etc and not feel bad.

10% of your joint pay goes to rent. It IS selfish.

Yes it was a housing association flat. But contrary to the belief on here there is no security if you cant pay your rent. The rent wouldnt have been the problem but on £50 a week i couldnt have paid the council tax afterwards or bought food or paid other bills.

This

a house i would have benefitted from? Really? Cos last time i checked they dont allocate houses to those of us who DONT HAVE KIDS. You were in such a rush to use my posts to berate the OP that you didnt read them properly.

Haven't RTFT yet but I'm the same OP.
I moved into my small 2 bed HA bungalow 25 years ago as a single parent. I worked but didn't have much left over after all bills were paid (including full rent as I was receiving Working tax credits so wasn't eligible). When DD left for uni 13 years ago all the WTC stopped so all I had was my wages. As I was earning £1.72 over the benefit threshold I had to pay all and every bill, including rent, in full. The only exception was the 25% Council tax discount for being a lone adult, which all single occupants regardless of whether they rent or ow, are entitled to.
DP moved in 5 years ago and we now have a combined income of just under £44k our rent is 12% of that. Given that, according to the many, many threads I've read on MN, it seems that anything less than £50k is not enough to live on, then it will be a cold day in Hell before I give up my lifetime tenancy and put myself at the mercy of a private LL. I faced homelessness once before I refuse to risk that again. Oh and anyone who says that they would happily go into private rent rather than keep their lifelong secure tenancy is either an idiot or a liar.

I really don't know where you got that nonsense from but, as a HA tenant, I do have to cut my own grass, pay for any appliances if they breakdown (just had to buy a new cooker as mine packed up 2 weeks ago), pay for all flooring, all furnishings (which are usually provided in private rentals), get permission to put up a fence in the garden. The only things I don't pay for are boiler repairs and plumbers........but then, neither do private renters.

Sorry another one who feels what you’re doing is morally wrong. Social housing may well have started for all but that’s certainly not the case now. Whilst I wouldn’t say you’re in the same league as benefit cheats for me, i winced when I read the OP, it doesn’t sit well with me and I do class it as playing the system. Perhaps I’m just jealous as someone who saved for years for a deposit and has been hit hard by mortgage rates

I’d feel very guilty taking up social housing I don’t need when there’s women in refuges having left abusive relationships. Why don’t you use the money you’re saving to buy, then you will have an asset for the future.

But that’s a massive flaw in the system, I assumed if you have social housing your income was reviewed regularly and if you earn over a certain amount you have to move.

Women leaving relationships aren't necessarily any more skint than the OP.

Why should all of our social programs constantly reward people who've made abysmal choices in life, instead of rewarding and lifting up those who are prudent and hardworking???

https://x.com/Kwajotweneboa/status/1729479210501103852?s=20

I think you are not making the most of your opportunity to invest your income in your own home and so potentially provide for your future life or your children's long term opportunities.
I think you are living in a home someone else might need more than you.
However if I was on your shoes and didn't want to buy and was in a good neighbourhood where I felt comfortable I might do the same.

Social housing tenants are more hated than domestic abusers and have more accountability to those they abuse?!

In your position I’d feel bad that people less well off than me were subsidising my housing costs and that people in greater need than me were stuck waiting for a house with no other way to get one when I could get one elsewhere. Whatever I think of the governments failure to provide affordable housing I would judge you for not making that property available to those that needed it more.

The best one i saw on here a few years ago was that all social housing tenants had their TV licences paid for them. I wonder what the haters will invent next

I’m going to be completely honest and say that I’m jealous.
We are unlikely to ever buy and are stuck in private rental. I love our house but it’s not ours, there’s no lifetime contract and there’s no stability.

Despite my jealousy I would like to think that morally I would prefer someone who desperately needed housing to be offered social housing over me or you but I also couldn’t hand on heart say that I would refuse it or move out when others needed it more.

The problem is that the tax payers (all of us) are subsidising you to live in your low rental accommodation. I think council housing should be means tested and the rent fixed accordingly, that way you get to stay put, but you pay your way like everyone else has to do.

In a country as densely populated as the UK, I think stair-less single-storey housing will mainly need to take the form of apartments (with two elevators, balconies, a shared garden). Bungalows are a very space-hungry form of housing because of the size of the plot required; there’s no way we can build loads of them unless we want to concrete over a lot of meadows. And sending pensioners to sprawling bungalow estates on the edge of towns (which is the only place we’re going to find the space to build these) is not really very future-proof; what happens when people lose the ability to drive? Elder-friendly low-rise apartment blocks, located in the same neighborhoods where people have lived already and within walking distance of shops and bus routes is probably the best solution for older people.

Completely agree with the sliding scale, although I know a couple with three working adult kids, that’s 5 full time wages living in a massive 4 bed council, again life time tenacy. Definitely over 80k going in there.

Personally I'm surprised so many people want to stay put in a house that they likely wouldn't have chose if they'd had infinite choice, rather than move somewhere else of their choice

Most of the people I know who've bought have had to make huge compromises. Either on size, layout or location, outside space etc. I've exchanged my council home a few times. My last exchange years ago was to my current house, where I'll stay. It's in Zone 2 in London, a 4bed Victorian conversion. In no world would I have ever been able to afford to buy it, same size property on my street sold for over 800k recently. I started in a 2 bed flat, so kind of similar to moving up the housing ladder.

Before anyone says I must have ended up having loads of kids! I didn't. When I left my abusive ex I had two under 5's. I didn't have any more children. But as they were opposite sex, after a time I was entitled to a 3 bed and then the HA that owns my current house allowed under occupancy by 1 bedroom.

Interestingly, I thought they would have stopped under occupancy allowance a long time ago but I recently joined a home swapper site on FB, just mainly out of interest. There are loads of ads on there like "looking for a 2 bed or 3 if under occupancy allowed" so it's clearly still going on. Not all councils/HA's allow it but obviously many still do.

I think it's fine OP. I also live in social housing but I'm a single parent on a low wage. I don't think I'm any more "deserving" than you or anyone else.