to think that people who choose to have more children whilst living in social housing shouldn't expect to be given a bigger place?

[balsamicfundamentalist]

I am a member of another pregnancy forum and there is a woman there who has just had her 5th child (by choice). Neither her nor her partner work and she is complaining that the council will not giver them a bigger house (she is in a 3 bed). All the other members are sympathising with her but I don't understand why. Surely if you choose to have a child when you know your home is not big enough, you shouldn't expect the council to give you a bigger one, especially when it is sought after subsidised housing?

She will be assessed.... Again..... And if she isn't paying rent, why?? Because she isn't working?

There isnt any with our HA there is about 4 four bedroom houses left in the whole of the county.

no-one gets to live rent free unless they have a benefactor paying it for them

people in HA/Social Housing have to pay or clain housing benefit

DD and her DH are in a 2 bed with 3 dcs' (2 girls and a boy) She knows she has more chance of fitting a spaceship up her arse than actually getting a 3 bed, so she has moved around the rooms so that the 3 dcs now have the massive lounge as a bedroom, the larger bedroom is now the lounge...and the boxroom is her and hubby's room.

You have to do what you have to do sometimes

They don't just hand you the keys to a bigger house after each child.

Do people really think it works like that?

usual housing associations buy from new developers where by law these developers have to build a percentage of new builds to be for social housing only

So, you need to be in an area of development..... I'm near MK. North of London where lots of new developments are springing up.... Inner city, not so much of a chance

It's not as easy as it seems to be honest. I know a woman who's just had her second child, her first one is nine. They have a 2 bedroomed house, but have tried to get a bigger house but are struggling. Because the girl is 9 though they 'have' to give her one.

A friend has only just got a 2 bed, her kids are 3 & 4. She was in a 1 bed, the kids had the bedroom and she and her DH slept on the living room floor. She only got the place because a friend of hers split up with her DH and wanted to downgrade to a 1 bed.

She stood sod all chance of getting a bigger place otherwise

You do realise that most new build social housing is extremely small and as many as possible are squeezed into as small a space as possible?

My last social housing house was a '3-bed' according to the HA. The largest bedroom in the house was 10x11ft, and two DC were sharing it.

The next smallest bedroom was 9x10ft, and me, my Ex-P and DS3 were sharing it.

My DD was in a bedroom that was 5x9ft, but due to the alcove for the stairs, you could only fit a toddler bed in there. She was in there until she was 13yo and 5ft2. In a toddler bed she couldn't stretch out to sleep in.

It's not all roses in social housing - the flat before that house was in an area like Baghdad, in fact the local nickname WAS little Baghdad.

I'm now IN a larger, 4 bed social housing house, but again, the bedrooms are tiny, and the garden is so small that if all 4 of my DC stand on the grass, in the four corners, they can all hold hands, and DS3 is only 16mo, so doesn't have long arms!!

AND I am paying £100 a month top up on my rent out of my benefits for the privilege of my DD being able to sleep lying flat in her bed, out of my benefits. And when I go and get a job in 18 months time, I will have to find most of the money to pay my £720 rent, if not all of it.

My tenancy isn't 'for life' either, it will be reassessed every 2 years. Not that I'll ever be able to afford private rented here, even a 3-bed would be more than I could earn in a month!!

I didn't choose to be a lone parent, but these things do happen.

Crazynanna, that sounds normal to me. I live in social housing,at one point I had 3 DCs here. The 2 DD shared the biggest room, the DS had the next biggest room and me and DP fitted our KS bed in the small room! All changed when teen stropped off.
I had moved into this house when HA houses were fairly freely available, I was with ExH, StD, DD1. 2 kids, one couple, three bed house=perfect. StD moved out, ExH became Ex! Me and DD1 in 3 bed house!!
SHOCK HORROR we UNDER OCCUPIED!!
I said I would soon fill my house with babies and I did!! So glad I did not downsize when I was under pressure to. I now have a 6 yr old and 5 yr old, who each have their own bedroom

Took me 4 months. Got overcrowding asessment, put in new banding and had to bid on larger properties. If they came up to bid on, you got 3 bids a fortnight

If the housing stock isn't there then nothing can be done..... It's a case of being lucky

couthy I was surprised at our new build being so large! Rooms are really big. I had heard new builds were tiny too. Not so here as it's 3 storey.

CouthyMow, my smallest room is 7'x9', the next biggest 7'3''x9'3''!

and actually social housing isn't that cheap any more.... not now the govt have introduced affordable rents.... which are 80% of market value

Someone mentioned up-thread the possibility of a three bed house with 2 children in each large room, one in the small room and parents on a put up bed in the sitting room. This is exactly how my family lived when they moved out of London to East Anglia in the early sixties. It was a combined family, both mum and dad had been widowed during the late 1940's.

As Dad was working days and Mum nights I've been told it was a struggle at times, especially getting the laundry for so many people done and dry but they managed, from a pratical point of view I'd think it would be easier now with better washing machines etc (assuming, of course, that you can afford them and the electric to run them).

In London they lived in a similar sized property that was falling down around their ears, in the middle of a very dodgy area and with hot and cold running walls. It was constant misery and some of the personal stories my siblings have told me from their time there have made me very gratefull that my parents managed to secure a move.

So, I agree with those that say sharing rooms and cramped conditions are not necessarily a big deal, but they might become a big deal if the house is in a bad area where you can't get out much or if the house is falling down around your ears.

I have Jaffa Cakes if anyone is interested.

Mine's currently just under £100 a week, which includes water rates and contents insurance. Which is really very reasonable for a two bed semi in the peak district park.

Rents and mortgages are crippling many people, it's really going to have to change, it's not sustainable I don't think.

I still haven't got my goat mind you. And who puts butter on their scones? Doesn't that make them crumble? Cream on the bottom half, jam on the top half, sandwich the two together.

butter makes sure the jam don't soak into the scone

Sandwiching them together is just wrong,two separate halves for maximum jam and cream coverage

Yes, ok but in the 10x11 room I had two DC, and in the 9x10 room I had two adults and a dc, and in the 5x9 (but not square) room, I had a teenager.

My rooms are actually smaller now, but there are 4 of them squished into the same amount of floor space IYSWIM.

Jam soaking into the scone? Maybe I'm being too ENTITLED and putting so much jam on there that I'm not noticing if some soaks in?

If I did jam and cream on each separate half, I'd probably need a bigger house just to fit ME in!

Thinking about it I grew up in an estate where the majority of houses were small 2 bedders. Wonder why they built so many small houses when they were for largish families. Most of the folk around us ranged from 2 up to 7 kids in a 2 bedder. The family next to us had one child (very unusual) and she had her own bedroom, we thought this was well posh.

Couthymow how awful to have to find a job in 18 months time and top up your rent with £100 of your OWN benefits, when the rest of us have to work now and pay for our own housing! boo hoo!

Here we go...

Its a goader