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?

happymumofone on page 6

TSC....that helps!!

TBH I often think of my own ideologies and know that when push comes to shove, when it comes to my own family, I would do anything as long as I recognised myself after!! (So sorry but I will not be selling my body tonight...)

looks for any takers?

Scrounging off your minted mates Have you no pride! YANBU to flogging the kids TAXPAYERS MONEY would have to keep them else.

TSC...Perhaps you could ebay your gas bill? (If you are having trouble paying the gas bill you can phone debtline (or whatever it's called, the government one) and they can negotiate with your service provider.

And remember to pay any tax from the sale of said children!

No take a leaf out of the books of the Tories and their mates and evade the tax, it's perfectly legal.

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/disabled-people-government-

The attack on the disability benefitts for the severely disabled in care homes

No. The evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance is illegal.
So if a couple decide each will work part time so they both get a single person allowance they are paying less tax than if one worked full time and they had one allowance. The organisatino of your tax affairs to pay the least amount lawfully is laudable and lawful.
Tax evasion is completely different and illegal.

Why should people who have multi million fortunes not avoid tax whilst its ok for others on lower incomes to do so.

I have no qualms with anyone who does their upmost to legally minimise the amount of tax they have to pay irrespective of income. It is financially sensible, I have ISAs and make no apoligies for having them

It might be financially sensible {highly suspect in some cases} but you know, its ok for the rich fuckers to do it ..just not the poor

I think its fine for the poor to minimise their tax bill as well.

Because the poor have creative accountants? and offshore bank accounts

bangs head on table
this is me in my new 'name' by the way-do you like it (TSC)

Of course those on lower incomes will find it difficult to avoid tax but its not impossible. Anyone can open an ISA etc (I know that some people don't have the spare money to put into savings)

Yes I like it

baildon,if you are on benefits it's enormously unlikely you have anything left over for savings.
We're 'working poor' after paying our mortgage\bills\food\clothes we've not got a penny left. every month something comes from nowhere and swerves us a £200 bill (i've had no washer dryer since August,I have a newborn,a newly potty trained toddler and another child-and we just can't afford to replace it,it was only 3 years old too) that is the reality for us and many many others.
and i still don't begrudge anyone on benefits a fucking penny.

I fully accept the point that the higher income you have then the more likely you are to be engaging in tax avoidance. This does not make tax avoidance wrong in my view though

I don't begrudge anyone a penny either .I've been well off ish and now skint as fuck ...I hoped that people would be ok to give us a helping hand when we were down , it being a civilised society and all ,but obviously not ..oh well fuck em I say

TSC- fair enough. And it's not me getting at you I assure you (I'm always abit jumpy about DH, poor bloke been through the mill).
I do get poverty.

Actually we're going to be properly poor now even though DH is in work as for some reason our benefit income has been cut by £200 a month but we have to wait for a letter lost in the Christmas post. Up all night trying to work out how to do it and the only way I can do it without seriously increasing our chances of lifelong dependency (me giving up my part time course that has a careeer at the end), just throwing costs elsewhere (could sell dh's car but it's a smart car and if he ahd to use the big family car to commute I think we'd rack up as much in the rising petrol costs as we'd save- with added issues about getting to the SNUs we use- no buses going there from here, petrol + 10 mile taxi trip every week going to help nobody is it?)- or cutting ur food budget to £60 a week for 6 of us, and 4 of us on costly special diets.

DO I prioritise long term solvency or short term well ebing? (no need for answers, got to sort that for myself). But I will wait until the mysterious letter arrives- given DH's self employment there could be any level of error involved so going to force myself to stop panicking.

Did make me realise though that it will be the poorest we've ever been, with DH doing 15 + hour days all in and me stuck in this carer role which tbh I really hate. I want to feel all fuzzy adn my kids need me but I feel bored, limited and sick to the back teeth of it. And ds4 seems to be midst some kind of regression so it could get worse yet.

We have a little in the way of savings but the cuts we've made to get them (OK dh made) are silly- i;ve lost a good few stone this yerar but not replaced clothes so my trousers fell down in the snow yesterday (!). I wouldn't feel safe without something there though.