To get annoyed that people renting get more help than people buying?

[lesley33]

Basically I think it is unfair that people made unemployed will usually get most if not all of their rent paid whilst people with a mortgage usually get nothing for 9 months.

I don't think people should get help paying the capital part of their mortgage, but they should imo get help earlier to pay the interest and thus keep their house until they get another job.

I know in theory people can get help with interest payments 13 weeks after they start receiving certain income based benefits. However in practice most people who have been working are entitled to contributory job seekers allowance for 6 months. This makes it unlikely you will qualify for the benefits you need to be receiving to be able to get help with mortgage interest. Even if you have exactly the same income as you would have had if you had been claiming income based benefits.

So in practice, most people get no help until after 9 months of being unemployed. Many people would have had their houses repossessed by then.

I wouldn't mind so much if home owning was confined to the well off. But many people who can't get a council or HA house end up buying on low incomes.

Is this a new thing then? Because I got help to pay the interest on my mortgage payments pretty quickly (and I just called the bank who held my mortgage and explained the situation and they were fine with it)

but why? it is your choice to buy, you take the risk.
yes it might result in shortfalls and you losing out, but there are insurances for that...and even if the worst happens, you will have a roof and therefore plenty of time to find a new one for a while before you really have to leave, wheras when renting people might get very short notice.

I suppose the arguement is that its up to people to have insurance or enough savings to cover mortgage payments for 9 months. Also what limit would you put on interest payments. Certainly there is a cap being put on housing benefit.

Prehaps the fairest would be to have a universal payment and the govement wants to move over to this model. Everyone has housing costs whether they are are buying or renting.

You have my sympathy as my dh was unemployed for 6 months and we got hardly any benefits as I had a low paid part time job.

when i recieved hb both times it took about 3 mnths for the payments to start.

Why? You choose to 'buy' then it's your responsibility. Defunct usually comes with redundancy pay, use that?

Defunct? Bloody phone, meant redundancy!!

I do think there should be more immediate temporary help for everyone in crisis. Say after 6 months or so if the situation isn't improving, help should be given whilst the house is sold and alternative accomodation is found.

We rent, but when my DH and I had to claim HB, we certainly didn't get the full rent!!

We didn't want benefits, or hand outs, but a loan of some sort, low interest to tide us over and see us through the crisis... but there was nothing available. I think if there was a loan that was available to everyone in crisis regardless of assets or previous income, other benefits and it was low interest it would be a lot fairer all round.

There are interest free loans for benefit claimants.

YABU. Isn't that what insurance is for?

Security of tenure is far less certain with rented properties. Your mortgage company will almost certainly come to an arrangement to accommodate your temporary difficulties - most landlords won't, nor will they wait months for payment.

Bear in mind too the reality which is that housing benefit in no way reflects market rental prices. I've just looked at my council's website to see what they'd pay someone with a rented house and family akin to my own - to find that I would have to find £220 per month to top up my rent, which is in no way above the average here, in fact I'd be very surprised if I could find a similar property for what I pay here. Looking too at the jobseekers and employment support rates for a lone parent I know that finding that extra £220 and paying basic bills plus feeding us would be impossible.

Eh? Why would someone get their rent paid?
Also, people who buy their homes don't have to move every fecking 6 mo... main reason we bought so children would have stability.

Many many people can't get insurance - me included. I have had for a few years jobs with short term contracts - so no insurer will touch you. My OH is self employed, so again no insurer would touch you. And please don't say we chose to work like this. We would both love to have more secure employment.

There is already a cap on the amount of interest and the interest rate covered when you do get benefits.

Before 2009 people got more help with mortgage interest payments than now.

I know it was my "choice" to buy. The reality though is that if I ever wanted to live somewhere okay, I had to buy. I was on council and HA waiting lists for a number of years without any chance of getting somewhere. I was living in a damp bedsit or small room in a shared house. So it didn't really feel like buying was a choice.

When I bought, I was working on a deprived estate where people were living in nicer HA houses than I could afford to rent or buy. My siblings are the same. Both have bought ex council houses - and not in the best streets either. But it was the only way they could get a house for them and their family.

captain - People who are unemployed and with no savings above a certain amount or other income, get housing benefit to pay all or much of their rent.

Ilovetiffany Many people who find themselves in crisis are not benefit recipients, and never have been. Which is my point really. If you're in sudden crisis, you need help there and then.

DH and I had never claimed benefits, there was NO help other than council tax benefit and eventually, after months of waiting, small help with our rent, by which time we'd sorted ourselves out, got into debt to cover our costs with loans that had massive interest.

"The reality though is that if I ever wanted to live somewhere okay, I had to buy."

Bull!

I'm a lone parent with a thoroughly unremarkable income. i live in one of England's most beautiful villages, picture postcard pretty, in a perfectly nice house with a large garden.

I rent. I couldn't possibly afford to buy here, it's way out of my reach. I wouldn't buy even if I could afford a mortgage on a house like this and certainly wouldn't substitute what I have here for a manky house on a rough estate just so I could say I own my home.

I've owned houses too so I know both sides - you may prefer to buy but what you've said above is senseless.

Aldi...... So if you had claimed benefits then you would have web eligible for a budgeting loan

Also, crisis loans are available to everyone, regardless.

Can anyone find me some people who have "all" of their rent paid by housing benefits, outside of social tenants?

Because as I said, if I were to claim benefit for my home I sure as hell would get all of my rent paid and according to many people I've spoken to nor do they, particularly after a recent change in policy where the councils cover even less of claimants rent than they did a year or 2 back.

I sure as hell WOULDN'T* get all of my rent paid...

YANBU. I agree whole heartedly but know that we will get shot down with 'why did you buy then' or 'you should have had savings' arguments. It's hideously unfair. I do not expect the taxpayer to buy my house for me but then I don't particularly like paying my taxes for people who, because they do have that option - rent paid straight away in most cases, can perhaps look for replacement jobs more leisurley. We were in this position a few months ago - earning half a salary (Dh works part time) having lost my reasonable salary and only with some seriously careful budgetting and having to use credit cards, did we stay above water. If, for three months, say, just the interest could be paid, even as an interest free loan, it would stop those of us trying to buy, be at real risk of homelessness which would cost the country millions more!

No Valhalla not whre I live either, and HB is dropping as well. In some areas HB will not cover social rent soon (social rents calculating method changing as are HB rents) and so some people- usually the most vulnerable- won;t be able to afford anywhere. Stills, tehre's always boxes, right?

I do think there are options; I think some contribution to mortgage for X months (after which you can sell- heck we did so not saying what we didn;t so, DH was very ill and we realised that if we sold and paid off all our debts we could cope with whatever was to come) should be available and a lien for said amount plus intrest placed on the mortgage; that can be paid off without interst within X years if the owner chooses to. So absically turning the house from a wholly owned to a shared ownership with buying option.

WRT too insurance absolutely; known too many people try to get the former boss of a now failed company to sign the forms without success or even finding them and not being able to amke a claim.

vallhala - I live in a City. It costs much more to rent privately than it does to buy. And that is the same for most people. The only rents that are cheaper than buying are HA/Council rents.

My OH's family all live in the country/villages and they have very large rents, but couldn't afford to buy there. I couldn't have afforded even the rents in the kind of places you are referring to.

I am actually not asking for favouritism. Just saying that if you are unemployed and would be entitled to housing benefit, then I think you should be entitled to the same amount of money to meet mortgage interest payments.

And when I think about friends with mortgages, about half are not able to take out insurance as no insurer would touch them - mainly people working on short term contracts/temporary basis.

An alternative view.....

I think it's unfair that people have made huge tax free capital gains from rising house prices over the last decade and now prices are falling slightly the Govt/Bank of England are doing everything they can to get them back up again.

Meanwhile, I as a tenant pay tax on all the money I use to pay my rent which the Govt then promptly uses to prop up banks that lost money lending on disasterous mortgages to people that should not really have bought a house they could not afford.

Lesley the whole rent thing is changing so rapidly. Levelds wille ven up more- not IMO a good thing but there you go.

So how much is currently awarded to mortgage payers then?

I understand you may not get unemployment insurance for short term contracts, but there is definitely insurance for people that are self employed or run their own business.
Not that this is relevant now I presume.

Also, your OP suggests both people would be losing their jobs at the same time, when presumably not many families are in that position. If one of you is working, presumably they wouldn't get their rent paid?

One of the expenses of buying a property is insurances, and some savings to cover emergencies surely?
I know people who can't buy not because of the multiples, but because of all the other things that are necessary as a home owner.