Social Housing allocation

[DillyDaydreaming]

I am so angry on behalf of my lovely sister who is awaiting rehousing at the moment.

My sister is currently living in an upper floor flat on the local shit housing estate with my nephew who is disabled (ASD/ADHD and Dyspraxia). Due to my nephew's extra needs my sister can only work part-time, however, she does this readily and earns just a fraction too much to qualify for any help with rent or council tax and is certainly not a complainer.

Recently the council awarded her some extra housing points because of my nephew's extra needs - they know she needs a garden for him and ground floor accommodation.

Last week we were at my parent's house when their neighbours daughter was there. We have known our neighbour's daughter for a long time (10 years +) and she is a nice girl however she has 4 children at the age of 23 and announced that next week she is picking up the keys to a brand new 3 bedroom house. I was pleased for her but noticed my sister seemed a bit quiet and later on she said to me that she felt so envious of this girl and felt really bad for feeling that way.
But honestly I can see her point - my neighbour's daughter nice as she is has never ever worked or paid a penny in rent and is being housed in the kind of property my sister can only dream of. My sister who works and does all she can to support herself and her son is still stuck in the slum estate flat and likely to be there forever given the shortage of 2 bed places locally. Council have told her that on her banding she has little or no chance of being rehoused even WITH the medical points.

I know I am probably being very unreasonable as the neighbour's daughter also needed housing and with four children in a two bedroom house it was a nightmare for her but why does she get the house with the garden while my sister has to struggle? All wrong.

I read an interesting excerpt at the "wall in the head" (based on the Wall in the Head that appeared in Germany post the falling of the Berlin wall) that explains how some people end up in this ruck of benefits/dependant lifestyle and find it hard/impossible to get out.

You can't tackle feelings or hopelessness or despair by taking away benefits. As Scary says it's a much more complex issue than that.

tbh though when I read threads about social housing, I'm rather glad that I managed to get into private rental, it's one less stick for me to be beaten with as a single parent with 3 children, currently living the benefits "lifestyle"

Allocation criteria is an absolute farce here. I spent 5 years fighting to be housed with my husband and son. He was forced to stay in residential care for the first 5 years of our son's life due to his disability. The council just kept saying that when a property came up they gave it to who it suited most. That was never going to be us, since we needed extensive adaptions.
Eventually we were housed in a newbuild. Since I was so over-the-moon about a house with a lift, hoists, room for ventilators etc I failed to check the basics and ended up with a bedroom that was too small to get a bed in when the equipment was in. I spent the next 5 years on a z-bed.
In the same newbuild complex a friend was housed. She was given a 2-bed, 2 weeks after vaguely enquiring as to whether she could be assisted, although she didn't think she would be. She was given priority due to triple occupancy. She was previously living with her mother in a massive 6 bed house, the grandmother lived in an annexe. Because 4 generations were technically at the same address she was housed immediately.
After we were housed I found out from a councillor who did some digging, that we had never been on the housing list at all, despite filling in reams of forms. I suspect they were hoping my husband would die before they had to do anything with him.

Slugz, that's awful :(

Do wonder if you lived in either of my previous councils, who had similiar policies (if you're disabled, you can't be on the general housing list...don't think they're allowed to do it any more, hope not).

I had similar experiences to your DP.

Slugz that is bad.

i;ve told this tale on other threads but anyway....

someone I knew, taken off list because she failed the 'refuse two places and you are off' test.

Fair enough?

Except both houses on the same road as the family of the man in prison (and due to be released to their address) for stabbing her; she was a DV survivor.

Eventually a refuge took her and her DD in, as she feared for her life. But as far as LA were concerned she had her chance and blew it.

'Electra so you propose that even though people can't afford to have children that they should be able to pop out more children and everyone else will pay for them?

Feck right off, these people should be made to live in really poor conditions at the bottom of the list or take the children into care.

If someone falls upon hard times or is in the position where they need additional help due to disability, absolutely the state has to help them out but it does not owe anything to people who take no responsibility for their actions. Hard but that;s the way it is. I'm am sick to the back teeth of people who are in genuine need through no fault of their own not getting help because others can't control themselves or their behaviour.'

Your 'argument' is flawed on so many levels but perhaps I'll begin by asking you HOW anyone decides who is a genuine case of needing welfare and who (in your mind) is not - where would you draw that line tootle?

And how do you know people who need help don't get it because those who are 'not entitled' do?? Where's your evidence for that statement? As far as I know entitlement to benefits is about knowing ones rights and how to apply them not because 'Mrs X up the road has 'stolen' all the money out of the pot the feckless woman, therefore there is none left for you'. What nonsense.

and what's that - that we actually care enough about children not to punish them when they're lumbered with feckless parents???

To think there is a sense of entitlement to being supported it what I meant.

Christ, everyone likes to read something into any comments.

You have to make people take responsibility for their actions.

yes but if you take the money away you're making CHILDREN pay for the actions of their parents.

TAking the money away won't stop them having children, it just doesn't work that way,

Believe me, as a single mother of 3, currently on benefits, who would dearly love a 4th child (should I ever meet another man ) and is going to be looking for work next year (well I'm starting to look now - but it's bloody depressing as there's just nothing there) it's bitter pill to swallow knowing that a few people will carry on having babies just so they don't have to work.

But it's life and given that I'm hoping to become a family support worker the last thing I want to be doing in my job is going into homes where things have gone from bad to worse because they cut the entitlement because they were "churning out" babies.

Agreed but what about people who aren't reliant on benefits and who cannot afford to have children or more children because they just cannot afford it?
How is it equitable that some people have to take responsibility and not take action they would like whilst others can as they aren't responsible?
And Ma I fully agree that if you find work you should be supported and get additional income to make sure you're not worse up than you currently are. Good luck!

oh if I find work (and believe me right now looking at the job centre, local paper and local council websites I'm not very optimistic right now) I'll get more back from the state than I currently do

And when I'm working poor, well I'll feel just the same. Taking money away from the parents is going to affect the children. There's no fair way of making doing it to ensure that children don't suffer as a result.

And at the end of the day that's what you have to concentrate on - there may be no hope for the parents - but do we really want to give up on the children?

I completely agree with Electra and Mama and suggest tootles that as a family who have paid NI, has two disbaled children, and a Dh who lost his job so i starting from scratch agin we might be the ones who you mean aboyt the deserving or whatever it was missing out?

Goodness only know about from tomorrow with the spending cuts, but ATM we are not missing out. And no child anywhere is less deserving (and that includes of a loving home) than I.