Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

88 replies

lesley33 · 29/09/2011 13:25

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.

OP posts:
PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 16:23

Be aware Lesley that it's £8k savings which to me is NOT low tbh. I;d bloody love £8k savings!

PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 16:26

here are the exact details

RebelFromTheWaistDown · 29/09/2011 16:27

YANBU. I thought I could claim on my payment protection insurance when I became unemployed in the 90's - I couldn't. It took me YEARS to get out of the hole I was in.

Original poster
lesley33 · 29/09/2011 16:29

I know its 8k savings - I wouldn't argue for it to be any higher.

It is 9 months for most people because you can only get it if on certain income based benefits. BUT most people who become unemployed are entitled to contributory jsa for 6 months and this means that you are unlikely to qualify for any income based benefits.

So you can have the same income as someone on the qualifying income based benefits, but you won't get help with mortgage interest. I thinks its a sleight of hand as most people don't seem to realise that they will have to wait 9 months for help.

OP posts:
Flamingredhead · 29/09/2011 16:36

Valhalla I like you , you talk sense Smile

MoreBeta · 29/09/2011 16:37

If I borrow some money to buy shares and they fall in value or I lose my other income so I can't pay the loaned money back would anyone think it right that Govt should bail me out?

No? Didn't think so!

People buy houses, sometimes they lose their jobs and they get repossessed. Its about time people learned about risk and didn't expect a bailout from Govt.

Same goes for bankers.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 16:38

Don;t the contribution absd ones pay for 6 months though? Or has that changed?

MelodyPond · 29/09/2011 16:48

Surely your friend could sell up and rent then bruffin?

MelodyPond · 29/09/2011 16:50

And surely it depends on when you got the mortgage as to whether its cheaper than renting? And how much deposit you had etc...

bruffin · 29/09/2011 17:00

She can but she is in her 70s and doesn't really want to. She was quite happy to continue working full time, but the office moved and the new place is not practical for her to get to.
She also has a dog so not sure how much a problem that would be for renting either.

MelodyPond · 29/09/2011 17:04

Yes, a dog probably would be a problem while renting (although not always) that must be really hard for her. Think I'm happy renting for now, although it does worry me that I could be given notice at any time.

Fwiw, my rent is 775 a month, but the house is worth 300,000. Buying would not be an option for us, even if we could get a mortgage!

tyler80 · 29/09/2011 17:21

Reading the link that PeachyWhoCannotType posted I'm surprised to see that the payments are based on an average mortgage interest rate (3.63 %). So some people with lower interest rates on their mortgages could actually be getting some of the capital paid off Hmm

I'm not quite sure where I stand on this. Whilst I don't think homeowners should be getting payments towards their mortgage the pragmatic part of me thinks that it's better for the government to help out so people can meet mortgage repayments when they're significantly lower than market rent.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 17:28

Bruffin does she have enough equity to buy say a garden flat?

unpa1dcar3r · 29/09/2011 17:51

If you have someone on High rate DLA (as i have, 2 of them in fact) the DSS used to pay 2/3rds of the mortgage (6%) but since Cameron got in he's lowered it to 3% (or about 1/3rd) so the other 2/3rds is up to the home owner.
This is do-able for me as i have a very small mortgage but many carers are not able to afford their mortgages anymore. Like they don't have enough to worry about!
Insurance doesn't last forever and most people took their mortgages on when they were working in paid employment as opposed to working 24/7 for nothing, caring for a loved one; child/ren, partner/parent etc. And have been forced through circumstance to give up their paid work to care.

As far as i'm aware if you live in social housing most of the rent is paid and it's one less worry. I might be wrong.

FabbyChic · 29/09/2011 18:10

When I was on ESA and my son was below 18 I got all but £5.00 of my rent paid and that was £629 for a two bedroomed house.

When I lived in social housing 8 years ago I got all my rent paid if I was unemployed/sick all barring water rates of £2.11.

Im now on my own with my dog, no children at home and have to pay full rent.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 18:12

Un[a1d yes for teh monmet but changing- theya re expecting quite a fe people to be evicted from council house for ebing unable toa fford them in next few eyars due to falling HB / rising LA rents

It's not as if with social housing you can just move anywhere weither; to get a chance of a house you need to show some link with area usually

System is in a state of flux right now

unpa1dcar3r · 29/09/2011 18:28

It's crazy Peachy. The same thing happened years ago with the housing and unemployment crisis. People were being forced to have their houses repossessed (with small mortgages) and being forced into bedsits and the like for ridiculous amounts of money paid by benefits.
The sensible option would be to keep them where they are and pay the bloody rent! Rather than evict them and end up paying more for where they go.

Still that would involve common sense and these are politicians...no chance of that happening!

Riveninabingle · 29/09/2011 18:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 29/09/2011 18:37

I know- and I still like my option further upthread about converting aplces with existing mortgaes to sahred ownership to increase LA stock and ehlp people in need.

I worked with a family who had lost their home. Instead of having a family in rented accom working claiming about £20 part HB per week towards mortgage , they ended up with the family in temp accom, out of work (Dad worked nights and could not sleep in noisy accom unit- one room per family, 30 famillies, hardly surprising) paying £700 pcm for the single room. Sensible planning there!

Family did get a house just before Christmas thankfully.

plupervert · 29/09/2011 18:37

Thanks, MoreBeta and BelleDameSansMerci.

Those who have "bought" (or shall we say for some: entered into a mortgage arrangement) already benefit from some very generous tax subsidies and a monetary policy which have demonstrable destabilising effects in our society and economy.

Low interest rates are already benefiting those paying mortgage debt, while savers (anyone who has not bought property and wants to) are getting incredibly little for their savings...and have done, comparatively, for many years (compared to the appreciation which was available through house price inflation).

Complaining that renters have it so good now is disingenuous or ignorant. With more and more "accidental landlords" (renting out properties which they cannot "afford to sell" because of negative equity, or simply renting out because they don't fancy the prices people can pay at the moment, with mortgage rates squeezed), sales are stagnating, yet sale-supply is also low, keeping prices up. Private renting is therefore getting more expensive and more onerous now, too!

plupervert · 29/09/2011 18:40

Definitely exclude your situation from my comments, riveninabingle - adaptations are a completely different matter!

Flamingredhead · 29/09/2011 19:02

Peachy with what you was talking about changes in how Hb is paid and will apply to all tenants including ones already got their house or had long time

If you have one room that your not entitled to they will reduce your Hb by 13% or two rooms it be 25% this is for everyone working or not

Flamingredhead · 29/09/2011 19:04

This is looking at coming into place from next year right across the country

Flamingredhead · 29/09/2011 19:06

So if elderly person has a 3 bed house and rent is £100 a week right now all be paid from next year they will be expected to find £25 a week themselves is applied to both council and private rents .Even if your rent is under the new Hb caps

TotemPole · 29/09/2011 19:09

Flaming, I think that's how it used to be before the brought in the LHA. If you had more rooms than you were entitled to they wouldn't cover the whole rent.