AIBU to hate the line "why should people on housing benefit live in homes that working people can't afford?"

[standupandbecounted]

"Why should people on housing benefit live in houses that working people could not afford?"

I keep seeing this line being thrown about in the media. Along with stories about families, usually with an average of eight kids, claiming a shocking level of housing benefit.The government is going to cap housing benefit to prevent this. Reasonable, but not the whole story.
A a less publicised proposal is to drop the level of Local Housing Allowance(LHA) from the 50th centile to the 30th centile.Local housing allowance is currently set at the median-middle value- of private rents in your local area. In my area the LHA is nowhere near the proposed cap. The maximum I can claim for a 2 bedroom property (I have 2 kids) is 126.92 per week. For a three bedroom it is £150 per week. Shelter have estimate that the average loss for a for a two bedroom tenant in my area will be £12 per week.( I assume this is based on predicted rent levels)
Loss per area here

I am renting a two bedroom flat for myself and two children, aged 18 months and 5. There is no outdoor space, it is not large and not in an exclusive area. The soundproofing is poor and the tenants upstairs are fond of partying way into the early hours. Hardly luxury housing that working people can't afford. I believe this myth about HB claimants living in the best properties does not represent the reality for the majority of us. I have tried to find somewhere better but most landlords will not take HB or children. I have put my name down on the waiting list for council housing but have been awarded thr lowest priority level. I will never get one with that banding.

The thing that upsets me most is the "working people" bit, a lot of HB claimants ARE working people! Housing benefit is also available to people who don't earn enough to cover their rent. Most low income people cannot access council housing anymore. They are forced to rent on the private market, where rents are to high to be affordable on low incomes. This is the case in most areas, not just London.

So, AIBU to feel angry that people on housing benefit are being misrepresented and subjected to unfair cuts?

Of course you are allowed frozen broccli, Brandy! In fact freezing preserves the vitamins better than fresh, so I hear!
And usually cheaper than fresh, and less waste as it doesn't go off before you eat it all.

Joking a bit is obviously a luxury that we don't deserve

Anyway..

Seeing as a lot of views on what those on benefits do and don't get is based on anecdotal evidence. Here's some from the other side;

• everyone I know with a council house has had to work very hard to make it habitable. These are usually properties which no private renter would touch, seeing as private renting means you have the ability to choose (to a degree obviously)
• the same goes for properties which accept those on LHA, there is less choice, and if you are on HB you are restricted not just by the cost of rent, but also by who is actually willing to take you on. So whereas those not on HB can say, "this place is obviously run by a cowboy landlord, we wont touch it", it's often the case that the cowboy landlords are the only ones that will take on HB tenants.
• council aren't usually too quick to repair council housing (much like those aforementioned cowboy landlords) so most repairs are paid for by the tenants. So while they are paying less rent, they are paying more for maintenance.

Then some facts:

• council housing is no longer for life.
• HB is reduced if you are on JSA long term (eg. those feckless scroungers who choose not to work and those who are forced onto JSA even when they can't work - but that's a whole other thread)
• HB is paid to working and not working, able and disabled. Cutting it will not just affect the "scroungers"

'Nobody said that, but poverty is not having a mobile contract and internet'

With no internet we'd go under as DH has an online business. OK we're now making a profit but when we were not (the start up pahse) had DH not had another job, would he not have been netter spending on that to get himself out of a strait than not?

We do have monbile contracts; £8.49 PCM. Bargain. When you are juggling 2 SNUs and 2 MS establishments you need to be in contact and for the free minutes etc it works better than PAYG- granted I don;t give a damn if my phone is an Android, Iphone or brick however.

Well quite Riven

Oh the other thing to take into account, with HB being lowered after a set amount of time on JSA. Less landlords are keen on taking the risk of HB tenants in case they suddenly can't afford their rent. (Yet again, all HB tenants are tarred with the same brush)

So even less choice of accommodation, and more needing temp accommodation. Eg. b&b's.

Riven, Sancty, what are you all moaning about? You're getting a whole extra tenner for Christmas! That is a lot of veg if you go after 5 when the limp stuff is discounted!

Our library is closing apparenlt, as are many.

Good, how dare the very many non working elderly poor on the big estate up the road have a chance to borrow books, or the unemployed try to look at jobs and agency sites? Too good for the likes of em I say.

Just coz a bus into the library / job centre once a week costs more than broadband, what does that matter?

Funny though, when people on here ask for cash advice first thing people say is 'can you ebay something?'- maybe we should loan out municipal rag and bone carts instead?

Hang on, one fine minute, I'm not saying that anyone should be without a phone or an internet. But if you have these I don't think you're poor.

I think that Britain should provide, being first world and all that, basic needs and internet and phone access. I also think it needs to cut it's cloth in some ways, first on my list would be to remove people that shouldn't be here in the first place. How much does it cost to take a failed asylum seeker to court?

No I don;t ExP in fact- only the recipient of the benefit gets it and you can get your DLA removed if not spent pon the disabled child (know someone who spent it on heating bill and lost it) so the boys get a tenner extra each. carers, woring poor etc don't (not complaining btw, just statement of fact LOL)

DS1 tore up ds3's bunkbed (again) during a Christmas- caused meltdown yesterday (ripped wire mesh off the frame)- am sure a tenner will cover that PMSL.

Costs a fortune when they run over and kill a young girl, especially when they get to stay because of it :(

First on my list would be to chase the very many absent parents who think it is OK to procreate then contribute zilch to their raising.

I think internet access is an excellent tool for helping oneself out of poverty, and taking away the tools is foolish in teh extreme. Not just net based work and job hunts but study etc. And indeed, given the Government ahs a target of amking manay benefits mostly claimable online, and is closing libraries etc, I think it will become more essential.

It is the net and it's use for business and study that makes this time a blip not a permanent thing for us. God bless it and all that surf on it- not to emntion the sheer amounts of SN support and info we've had over it for eyars. Doubt we'd have decent SNUs or anything sorted without it.

Illegal is one thing, we'd all do it given most of their terrible situations. But drug dealing, murderous illegals are a different kettle of fish entirely.

BBE...Forget me I'm in a bad mood, yesterday I had £100 stolen, then DH was promised a bonus which he has now been denied and then to top it off the share scheme has underperformed and so the debts that I thought we'd be free from by February is now only half the debts in April. And then I don't know why I'm moaning because two women my age are about to spend their last christmas with their children because they are dying of cancer. So I am feeling miserable and selfish.

thanks xxx

Sounds depressing enough to me posie

However I am the recipient of the most amazin' secret santa gifts......and next year when I'm officially 'okay off' I will bestow gifts all over MN!!!!