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?

Me too , glitter

ColouringIn, like I said before, I wish some of the frothing would be directed at the men who walk away. Well, any of the frothing would be a start.

Hope you are doing ok.

I doubt that you'd get a bigger property automatically. I just can't believe it's that easy. Anyway, it's some other post on some other website and, really...

Happymummy, as the topic is clearly housing and not benefit your post is irrelevant. However, did you wait to have children until you could afford to bring them up or do you work and pay others to do this, not that there is anything wrong with this way of life but its hardly affording is it?

I think 'waiting till I could afford it' is always a bit of a gamble, and some of us got dealt a shitty hand of cards.

It doesn't mean our morality, or willingness to work, or contribution to society, should be in question.

There needs to be more affordable housing available and better rights for tenants as a whole. Council/HA houses where we live (although seemingly like gold dust) are half what we pay in private rent and you have the added security of not being at the whim of a landlord who decides to sell 6 months after moving in after assuring us he wouldn't be selling for a few years at least- not much fun with 2 babies in tow.

That's the real issue for me actually- not being able to put down roots, having to move and find another deposit, moving costs etc. I wish we could afford to buy, but we just can't.

Has it recently got a lot more difficult to obtain a council/HA house? I genuinely recall different friends a few years ago finding it a fairly easy process- we were told we could only get help after being given a 2 month notice due to landlord selling was to move was to refuse to leave, be taken to court which would then give us homeless status (we didn't do this).

There are ways of controlling the private rental market but governments don't want to touch them. So we have high rents and tenants with little security and an increasingly small stock of social housing.

Personally, however my housing was provided, if I didn't think I could house my children in a way I find reasonable, I wouldn't have more.

We waited to have DS until we could afford it... What does that mean? Until we can buy our own home?? That would never happen, so does that mean I shouldn't have children?

yy, social housing and unemployment do not go hand in hand.

Does nobody remember the chap from the song, "My Old Man's a Dustman"? He lived in a council flat

I grew up on a council estate. Most people worked. (except my mum. The shame etc) Most (80%) of people who claim housing benefit work. Rents are too high compared to wages.

I am quite prepared to wear Cor Blimey Trousers whilst perfecting my servile demeanor - I am nothing if not flexible.

I grew up in a council house, my dad worked his whole life - the only benefits claimed were later on when my mum claimed disability benefits. My friends have just been "given" a council house - they both work full time, are not "poor" but were struggling to find the rent for their rented home and it was cheaper than the local market value so would have been vulnerable if the landlord sold (which he has now). I was at how much the rent was, they turned down one place previously offered because the rent was high and they couldn't afford it.

at how much the rent on their council place is

Line runner - don't forget your cap, hold it in your hands and tug your forlock ;-)

OK I've got the hunched, Quasimodo servile look, the self-fondling Uriah Heep hands obsequiously clutching a cap, stretching up gratefully to tug my forelock, and I'm wearing Cor Blimey Trousers.

My accent is veering dangerously between Charles Lawton and Dick van Dyke.

just tell them how you'll be "ever so grateful guvnor"

I'm trying to develop a voice that is akin to Jean off Eastenders. Is that a bad call?

Seriously, I'm going down the Council tomorrow.

Surely they shouldn't expect it, because it's an unrealistic expectation! Most people in that situation just have to cope with the overcrowding, at least for a while, because there often just isn't a suitable larger house available for them. Regardless of whether they work, what benefits they do or don't receive, how much tax they've paid etc. I really don't think anyone is suggesting forced abortion or anything like that , but people do need to be realistic in their expectations.

With an unplanned pregnancy, I guess you just have to manage the best you can, just as families in privately owned/rented homes do.

linerunner have you used the phrase 'much obliged to you guv'nor, honest I am' when coming across a 'hardworking family' (copyright the Daily Mail)

Happymummy not many of us set out to live a life on benefits - but it has happened to me on more than one occasion. No one sets out to think 'I'll lose my job, get ill, have a sick child, get left by my partner' so I can live just above the breadline on benefits.

I hope for your sake, it doesn't happen but if any of those events happens to you, I will bet you'll be a hell of a lot less lemon lipped about parents in receipt of benefits.

doggie sorry x posted.

linerunner waiting for the caaaauncil to open

I have actually got trousers like that, usual.

great minds Compo :)

I always wondered what Cor Blimey Trousers looked like.