To think: if you can fly first class, you shouldn't have a council house?

[Mexxo]

Facebook friends of mine (friends of RL friends really) making lots of comments this week about their impending holiday to Mauritius on which they'll be flying first class and staying in a 5 star hotel.

This couple have lived in a council house for many years (no kids yet), though this year so far she has got a new (not brand new, a year or two old but still v nice) BMW and he has a new Ducati.

One of their friends has commented on FB "Wow, did you win the lottery?!" and the wife replied "no we just saved a long time for our dream holiday".

First class flights to Mauritius are £4k each. A week in a 5 star hotel must be at least £2k and probably more. That's £10k for a week's holiday. AIBU to think that if people can squirrel away that much money for a holiday, they shouldn't be living in a bloody council house subsidised by taxes from the rest of us?

I'm going to sleep now. I've not given up fighting my corner I'm just tired and my teething 10mo will sure enough wake me in an hour or too for some gum numbing..

It's my lot that are disabled, 3 / 4 of them. But I only expect one of those to not work.

THE TENANCY CAN BE USED FOR A STUDIO OR ONE BED FLAT!!!!

*two

peachy council doors!!

why will he not be able to afford to go to uni. will he not just have to take out the loan that the vast majority of others will. i am studying now at 40 and getting myself in to debt but it shall be paid off at a low rate that i shall be able to afford. i would prefer to be borrowing less but i am not thats life its hard at times

Indeed. Council doors, you can always tell! look like they'd fall apart if jumped on by a pug.

Freudian go for it, I did mine in my early thirties. I find it easiest to see it as a tax on extra education received. Close to finishing my MA now, albeit part time over quite a while. Loved every second of study, would do a Phd but truly can;t afford that!

My oldest friend's mum lives in a council house. Her husband fucked off when their third child was born and no maintenance was ever seen. She worked endless crappy cleaning jobs, nursed her elderly mother until her death, raised 3 great children that now pay taxes themselves, and retrained when my friend was old enough to babysit the younger ones and worked a difficult job, doing shift work which exhausted her for the next 20 years. She's retirement age and has saved bloody hard so that she can go on foreign holidays. Holidays that she has dreamt of forever.

Oh, no, she shouldn't go on those! She should hand over her savings to the council that have so kindly and generously allowed citizens of this country to have a roof over their head at a reasonable price. And she smoked at one point as well. And had a cat. Cheeky cow.

My sister lives in a HA house and is constantly having to explain to people that she and her husband PAY RENT and WORK.

I hate your this nasty petty-minded way of thinking.

someone corect me if i'm wrong is'nt council housing already means tested in some way for example a friend of mine was living with dp but broke up went to local council and was told because she works that she could afford to rent privately she was still allowed to apply but would be bottom of the list

@lst could you please explain to me how you think the housing system is'nt flawed?

Blackberry That makes a difference then. He can swap to a studio or one bedroom flat at below market rate and then spend his extra cash on extravagant holidays - whilst denying a single parent/disabled person the studio or one bedroomed flat.
Half said tongue in cheek.

#isn't

well done Peachy. it is a lot of money and even more if you start a degree this year but i feel so lucky that i have this opportunity after working for many years starting something totally different. my mum never would have and certainly not my grandparents. though sadly many on my course just bitch about having to pay the fees back. in an ideal world we would not have to but we do not live in one

I'm sick of all the council house bashing, I have to listen to it all day at work as it is.

I think, people can't win, if you're 'needy' your a scrounger, if you work hard and earn a wage and stay in a council house you're a scrounger. Perhaps some people would be happy if they did away with council housing and bought back the workhouse.

Tantrums, it's not so much means-tested as needs-tested. And if your friend is a fit, healthy, working, single (?) person, she's very, very low on the needs scale.

She can apply to be put on the list, and a bedsit might become available in a decade or two...

yes she is i suppose fit and healthy works ft and has one ds so i would consider her in need as living in private rent would make her broke

Sorry, tantrums, but as she's working and can rent privately, that's her best route. You say she was living with an ex before, whose tenancy was that? Did he own? Why did she leave, rather than make him go, assuming her dc is his?

She is, as you said, allowed to apply. But she's not likely to get, any time soon, so she must look after herself and the child she chose to have. And her ex should also contribute to the child.

But she's not a priority over women fleeing abuse, families who have spent months in B&b and then years in temporary...

she no because LST described her area and itsl like mine. Plenty of social housing. Housing associations are better than councils in this respect. It wouldn't be taking a flat from a disabled person either, they are fitted out for disability and don't go to tenants who don't require the additional support

We have an apartment in the block opposite vacant. Can't let it. Brand new and nobody wants to bid on it as there is no bus route ( yet)

A single parent may not be eligible because they do work you know and earn!!! Also, a single parent would not be eligible as they would require a 2 bed depending on children

if she is on a low wage she will also get housing benefit and tax credits

Can we have some first class reasonableness/ unreasonableness without personal attacks please?
Thanks

of course needs must!
i'm not saying that she has or should be given priority over people in the situations you described,but as i've said and what most of us know private rent is very high and on the income she has it would be near impossible to make ends meet even with the help of housing benefit.

@anditwasallyellow i thought you was my mum read your name very fast and it looked like her real name

Well, "private rent is very high" in some places. I rent privately, have been in this place for 8 years, and have not had a rent increase in all that time. Plus, they are brilliant landlords, with repairs (mostly) being done quickly, and my rent for a massive, detached (and very expensive to heat) house wouldn't get you half a bedsit in central London.

A lot of expensive private lets these days are because of people who never planned to be landlords, finding themselves with no options but to let, and desperate to cover their mortgage, insurances etc.

I foresee horrors for these ll, and for their tenants, in the next few years. Horrors await.

Jeezy peeps Olivia, where have you been all day?