to think that the Goverment's plans for Social Housing are disastrous

[donkeyderby]

Are beloved Govt are talking about charging 80 - 90% of market rents for social housing.

I'm not in favour of ridiculously low rents for council tenants, but won't this simply place thousands more people in the Housing Benefit trap of not being able to afford to work?

Uncontrolled property prices have contributed significantly to our society of haves and have nots and private rental prices must be keeping so many people chained to Housing Benefit. The average price for a 3 bedroom property in our area is around the £1000 per month mark. How can that be affordable to someone on a low wage? Ditto £900 PCM.

How will this work apart from going back to some Victorian era of cramming families into one bedroom?

Gin anyone?

Presumably the £280 and £400 a week limits are going to be the caps in very expensive areas like central London and other areas will be reduced proportionately to this?

Someone on another website has said ALL rates in ALL areas are going to be dropped to 30% of the area's market rent - so someone in a house costing £600 will only get £180 under the new rules, they will have to make up the difference themselves."

Is this true? I am wondering if they mean by 30% rather than to 30%?

I now see that LHA is going to be set at the 30th percentile, not 30% of market rent. Maths is not my strong point, but I think this is right? At the moment LHA limit is 50th percentile of market rent. That doesn't mean it is 50% of market rent, it means it is average rent - half are less than LHA, half are more. So 30th percentile will mean 70% of housing costs more, 30% costs less than LHA limit. I'm not quite sure how to work out percentiles but presumably the cuts aren't going to be that dramatic as the papers are making out?

Depends on where you are and what your circs are really.

Shoulds we need to claim HB then e'd be £25 pw down on where we would have been pre cap; this is becuase the LHA rate is set for an area quite far away, and we'd have to balance losing the SNU provision we have in place with paying teh extra. it wuld be the extra, and eat less often. This place was chosen whilst in full earning work- so anyone redundant stands to lose big time; ironically it will hit those who have worked more than those who never have IMO.

My family is lucky; within the span of cuts announced so far (who knows about today- cannot say I slept much last night) we should be back on a good income anyway; by 2014 especially it will be more likely we will be worrying about uni finance than hb for us.

But we will always know how close we came and feel empathy for those still there.

Actually Riv, that 2k figure I quo0te comes from a report over five years ols and for ASD: your dd would cost far more i think. But it was the most up to date figures I could get from a non biased source when I needed something for my MA work (and yes, I did date teh reference LOL).

Where we are is a small town, a few miles from a big city. About the size of Worle I guess. So a fairly self sufficient community: peple won;t just ahve to moe within that, but from the whole town, and out onto the city peirmeters- often up to 40 minutes drive or more away. So 40 minutes travel added onto the cost of working, chidlare etc- and with a bad travel system, quite often the difference between working and not i would imagine.

couldn't resist LOL

Thank goodness we are in Wales; we're a year behind on council cuts as they had money back.

A place at SNU isn't based on where you live is it? As long as you live within that borough you can get a place there (as long as there are places available)

NA thre are catchments for transport (certainly here, whcih has a slightly different system- there are several of type ofp SNU ds3 attends and you go to the lcoal one)

But also- where we live, we border three counties; a move of 50 yards in both directions takes us out of borough anyway. And also ds1 is currently in MS school with a tiny catchment with TA support; he needs to maintain that, until his SNu palce comes up we hope (1/15 chance of a aplce) next year. We could get to stay under statement but LEA wouldnt transport and with 4 schools for 4 kids that wouldn;t work.

but as long as LL up for it we think we will be OK; we have two options atm: Dh can take on more hours, which he will- inclusing study it will be 70 hours a week) but he ha a history of severe MH difficulties related to exhaustion and a past nervous breakdown so if that happens we have to split up

We were told we couldn't go to the school DS now attends cos of transport but we fought and fought and he got a place. We were told by IPSEA if that's the best school for your child's needs and there are places, eventually they will have to provide transport.

i dont think i really understand this poor people not being able to afford private houing rates. If hb will pay for your house, what does it matter if you rent private or social? just because hb only needs to pay 400pm rather than 800 pm private, if it will stay pay 800 if needs be then whats the problem? I cant afford my rent but i have too or else il have no house.

can someone explain this to me please?

Sorry Nordic not quite sure I understand that?

If you have £11 left after basic bills and the HB drops by £400 then you can't afford your house can you? Simple maths.

NA- there are plenty of schools that meet ds3's needs except for the one about consistency: and ds1 couldn;t cope with a new TA at this stage. Should we have to elave I am seriosuly considering bellt ent on town green and squatting frankly.

then you move to a smaller cheaper house? im not trying to sound rude or arsey but i rent a 2 bed house even though most people in my situation would rent a 3 bed but i cant afford it.

im not sure im understanding this

IF there is one in your area

Remember there is not one or two people going to be aplced in this situation: it's hundredds of thousands by some counts.

Does your street ahve a hundred thousands leases ging at rock bottom prices? No? Mine neither.

i imagine what will happen now is private landlords will put up the rents as demand goes up.

how will hb be cut by 400 a month though? my rent in 800 a month. i thought that was expensive...

varies where you live doesn't it?

Mine is 650; LHA rate (30th percentile) will be £350. Ergo, anyone living here on what seems like a cheap rent will be seriously short of cash.

A big part is that there are four changes affecting HB: the £400 a week limit- will hit very few outside central London; the £26000 cap on benefits- an arguable case for it to be sure, but the famillies who will be hit most- bigger ones (sadly for Government, retrospective contraception not standard yet) are also the hardest to house; a cap on rooms available so teh bigger famillies will have to find more ££ for a house that is not overcrowded; and the change on LHA rent values to 30th percentile of the local lease price (disabled not exempt from this BTW, the 'we protect disabled people' rhetoric is more limited than the PR suggests)-

therefore, leaving aside social issues, it is going to create a massive number of people looking for new homes for any of four different reasons.

I think consistency is a very good arguement and I reckon if you did have to move you could still get transport. I'm not saying it would be easy, but eventually they would say OK you win.

It would be different if you were picking a completely new school and he had never attended there, but that's not the case.

How do you know yours will be 350, have you been told already?

Yes there's a list I found somewhere on the net

As fdh is self em[ployed we're putting his business into a aprtnership which might save WTC and this the hosue; fingers crossed!

"HappyMummyOfOne Tue 19-Oct-10 16:15:27

Social housing rents did need to rise as they were very low and unfair on those paying the market rate."

It seems people here don't really understand what Social Housing is for, as someone brought up on the South Acton Estate I would just like to point out that 30 odd years ago, Social Housing was for families, you got means tested and an inspector come round your place of residence to see how in need you where, then your place on the list would be decided.

It was all about giving a good home to families who didn't have the money to get anywhere, in my families case before our 3 bed council place there was 5 of us in a 1 bed place and funny as it sounds my dad worked as a Civil servant in Whitehall all his working life.

Things have changed a bit (no inspectors anymore and asylum seekers get priority) but to say that Social housing rent is too cheap and not fair is simply retarded, it goes to show that something has seriously got screwed up over the years to the extent that people don't even understand what the entire point of it all is.

Looks to me like history is going to repeat itself for people to see what it was all about anyway, when families are sharing bedsits and the next wave of social housing starts a fresh due to the horrible overcrowding, lack of education, sanitation and prospects the poor are going to endure all over again.

Have you got a link to the list? I am looking to move, so I may as well find somewhere I will still be able to afford next year.

Ryoko please don;t use retarded as a word, we are not in America and in the UK it is not an accepted term

NA running out to do a pick up but will find for you alter (if not harass me- terrible memory)

Is that word really regarded as OK in America?