Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to question the cut in housing benefits for under occupying council tenants?

307 replies

Liketochat1 · 28/09/2012 16:33

In April next year the government are cutting housing benefits to working age council tenants who have more bedrooms than they need. They will be offered alternative accommodation of an appropriate size with no reduction in housing benefit as an alternative.
Is it fair to change the current system like this? To ask people to leave their homes and possibly the area in which they live? To expect siblings of the same gender to share a room?
Do you think it will be extended to include oaps who occupy properties which are too big for them. Should it?

OP posts:
JANEHEWITT50 · 07/05/2014 12:21

OAPs are not included in bedroom tax, it is only working age people

JANEHEWITT50 · 07/05/2014 12:21

oaps are not included in bedroom tax, it is only working age people

Lookrightnow · 07/05/2014 12:23

Zombie thread?

MelonadeAgain · 07/05/2014 12:34

To ask people to leave their homes and possibly the area in which they live?

I thought the same myself, when I left home to go to uni. Then Halls of Residence chucked me out after two years and I had to live in a shared flat. The horrors! Then I could only get a job in a different city and I had to rent a shared flat again!

AIBU to throw myself on the ground, beat my fists against my skull and make a loud wailing noise at the sheer inequity of my life?

And next year I'm going to move again - in fact I live nowhere the place of my birth!!!

Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

BackOnlyBriefly · 07/05/2014 12:40

I can only suggest that you read the thread. I've not read this old one, but I'm sure in here someone will have explained why your simplistic view of it is based on a lack of understanding of the way it is implemented.

MarieNE · 07/05/2014 12:42

Its not fair, it punishes the poor that cant afford to buy.

The rich should get a bedroom tax for each room they don't occupy!

LuisSuarezTeeth · 07/05/2014 12:58

ZOMBIE THREAD

LineRunner · 07/05/2014 13:00

Is there is an election on???

ZOMBIE THREAD

(probably resurrected by the Conservatives)

ReallyTired · 07/05/2014 13:11

Its not a bedroom tax, its paying people the amount of housing benefit they need to meet the amount of space they actually need.

However there are issues with disabled people who need an extra room and are being penalised under the housing benefit cap. Prehaps we need an additional housing benefit for disabled people so that they can afford the extra room they need.

I agree that owner occupiers who under occupy should be penalised. Prehaps its time to get rid of the single person discount on council tax for properties with more than one bedroom.

"Do you think it will be extended to include oaps who occupy properties which are too big for them. Should it?"

As pension increases there will be fewer OAPs. This will become less of a problem. I am in mixed minds about this. It is hard to move in your seventies/ eighties and there isn't long before such a person is dead anyway. However there are families who are in very cramped accomodiation.

If someone doesn't want to downside then there is the option of taking on a lodger.

LuisSuarezTeeth · 07/05/2014 13:15

ZOMBIE ALERT

                ZOMBIE ALERT

                               ZOMBIE ALERT

                                                 ZOMBIE ALERT
medic78 · 07/05/2014 20:00

The most shocking thing is the fact that council houses were sold off cheaply to tenants. Some are now raking it in renting property back to the council.

usualsuspectt · 07/05/2014 20:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IfNotNowThenWhen · 07/05/2014 21:33

True medic. Where I live half the council houses have been sold to Right to Buy people, who then sell them on to landlords, who then rent them to the very families that previously would have been allocated them as council houses, except at twice the rent and none of the security.
Council housing used to be just cheap housing for anyone. My GP's lived in a council house, and back before right to buy, so did lots of perfectly ordinary families, who didn't have to prove a "medical need", or domestic violence. It was just where you lived when you didn't have a really well paid job. No big deal.
Now that the Tories purposefully sold off most of the housing, they are going after the poor sods who are still clinging on, and making their lives as miserable as possible, rather than saying "we fucked up. Lets build a shit load more family houses right now"
Also, there is this attitude now that living by living in social housing the tenant somehow gives permission to be treated as less than human. It is a human need for most people, especially when they have kids, to have secure home.
As someone who is about to be made homeless, can I also point out that
just because you rent a place doesn't mean it's not your home. I have paid THOUSANDS A YEAR to landlords over the years, and I have spent further hundreds and hundreds on paint, curtains, rugs, plants-all things I can't take with me. My child is about to lose the room he loves, and the friends he has on our street, and move for the 4th time in his young life.

Oh, and MelonadeAgain; some might say that you come across as a bit of a cunt. Not me though, I would never be that impolite.

deakymom · 07/05/2014 21:41

it doesn't include OAPs sometimes i wish it would there are so many houses occupied by oaps when they live in the lounge wash in the kitchen pee in the drain (don't ask about the other really DONT ASK) people can wail about its there home and they have rights all they want but its obviously becomes unviable for them when they can't use half of it then there are families in a flat (all on one level so handy for someone who cant make the stairs) it seems unfair if you want to under occupy buy your own home personally when the kids are gone i intend to downsize if i haven't been able to buy a house by then who wouldn't want to live in a smaller easier to maintain property why make life difficult?

i think they should be rehomed in there area though and i dont think benefits should be cut just that people are put in social housing according to need not want really being in social housing i save around £200 a month i couldn't afford to work and rent privately not a chance in hell i take my gift and im grateful for it i take good care of my property and im respectful of my neighbors im more than willing to move when the time comes

why shouldn't siblings share? if they spent more time playing outside they wont get on each others nerves will they? i shared with my sister we didnt see each other till bedtime!

fifi669 · 07/05/2014 21:41

The problem wasn't right to buy. The problem was not replacing the housing stock once they'd been bought.

I completely agree with reducing housing benefit for under occupiers. It was a ridiculous situation that should never have been an issue to start with.

Rommell · 07/05/2014 21:48

[Applause] for IfNotNowThenWhen and so sorry to hear that you are being made homeless.

This is a totally fucked-up policy. Even if there were enough council properties with fewer bedrooms to go around (there aren't), uprooting families from their homes like this is cruel and unnecessary.

Bodicea · 07/05/2014 21:52

Melonde - made me chuckle.
Precisely.

People who work pay for their own home have to move all the time where the work is , lose their home if they stop paying the mortgage, down size if needs be etc.

If you are a council tenant you can't possibly move?! How
Horrendous for them! Ridiculous. My mum is in her 60's and will have to down size. She is not wingeing to anyone about it. It is just a fact if life.

When did people get so entitled in this country?

IfNotNowThenWhen · 07/05/2014 22:04

Do you not see the difference between losing your home because you choose to downsize, and being chucked out with 2 months notice??
Wanting a modest place to live, without the fear and stress of being endlessly moved SHOULD be an entitlement of a civilized society. I have lived in 3 countries, 5 cities, and had probably 15 different homes. I used to think nothing of moving. Now my son is in school it is a totally different kettle of fish.
And for the record I don't claim HB, and have always paid the rent on time.

Ta Rommel
When did MN get so full of unimaginative dickwads?

fifi669 · 07/05/2014 22:15

It's not being endlessly moved though is it? It's downsizing to a property that meets your needs or paying for the privilege of having the extra space.

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 07/05/2014 22:16

DP's cousin has 5 adults and a teen plus a baby on the way. They are living in a 3 bed house.
There are no 5 bed houses (which is what they would technically be assessed as requiring). They asked about 4 beds and were told the council couldn't legally put them in a 4 bed as you aren't allowed to be moved into an overcrowded situation.

I know it's off the OP but it's a total shambles

IfNotNowThenWhen · 07/05/2014 22:20

Sorry Fifi-maybe not clear. I am also talking about the situation of being a private tenant (when once I would have been able to get a secure council house).
But, again, with council tenants as well, they are being subjected to constant scrutiny and pressure, with the burden of the housing crisis placed on their shoulders, which is just mad.

fifi669 · 07/05/2014 22:29

It doesn't just effect council housing though does it? If you rent a 3 bed but only need a 2, that's all you'll be helped for. Seems perfectly reasonable to me! Isn't it just bringing it into line with other people that only get what they need/afford?

I am a council tenant by the way..... I was on HB up until 18 months ago

usuallysuspect · 07/05/2014 22:30

There are not enough CH to downsize to.

And if you agree to down size is it fair you have to pay extra while you wait?

fifi669 · 07/05/2014 22:36

How many people would say they agree then not move? Or turn down numerous properties saying each is unsuitable due to x, y, z?

As I said it's a situation that we as a country should never have gotten into. This should have been the case from the beginning. Now it's all a bit of a mess but I think in 10 years people will be amazed that one person could have the rent paid on a 3 bed house for them.

usuallysuspect · 07/05/2014 22:42

They were not given 3 bedroomed houses unless they needed them in the first place.

And what are the wealthiest amongst us doing to help with the housing crisis?

Swipe left for the next trending thread