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

[Liketochat1]

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?

No usualsuspect, the state is expected to sort out the housing crisis and one obvious way to do this is to allocate properties to state tenants to better meet their needs so that more people are housed more appropriately than at the moment. That would start to solve some of the housing crisis.

I do not understand how a person wanting to stay in a too-big house trumps a family needing less cramped accommodation. I fully expect to downsize at some point in my life: I'm all kinds of amazed that some people don't seem to think this might apply to them, even though they don't even own their property.

In an ideal world it wouldn't be fair but when there are families living in B&B's while single people live in 3 bedroomed houses for £50 a week then housing needs to be distributed more fairly. There is a housing shortage and a lot of private landlords have gotten greedy because they know they can charge more if they take people who claim housing benefit. The house next door to me is rented out at more than £100 a month more than other properties in the area. That's because the current tenants claim full housing benefit so it doesn't matter that it is above the average price.

Oh and my Grandad's house has no central heating - apparently this is totally fine for a 90 year old in 2012.

When he asked about it they said they would do it but his rent would go up.

My Mum asked about downsizing and was told that the rent on a centrally heated bungalow might be MORE than his current rent because his house has not been modernised.

It is not really an incentive to move is it?

But usual some of the poorest will benefit

YeahBuddy that is just ridiculous! Who the hell was responsible for that?

Usualsuspect I think you could argue that the poorest are the people who are living in sub standard cramped inappropriate accommodation.

The poorest are affected, but I would argue far fewer are affected adversely than will be affected positively. Nobody will be moved into something inappropriate for their needs. Many people will be moved into something much more appropriate for their needs. That is a good thing, surely?

And actually Fluffydressinggown, at the risk of becoming very unpopular, yes I do think he should move. BUT not just anywhere, I think if people like your grandad are willing to downsize, the council should help them out. Work with him to find him somewhere he would be happy to live, help him with the cost of moving, advise him to apply for hb (after all, it's not the councils fault that he doesn't claim what he is entitled to), I'm assuming from your post he pays all his rent himself out of his pension, is that right? Apologies if I have misunderstood.
None of this is going to happen overnight though, systems need to be put in place to ensure that people who have to use subsidised housing are in the right accommodation for their needs, not to just cut down hb and hope that people will sort themselves out...

The biggest problem for me is that they're not putting any value on community. I see this with my mum. She lives in a community that she has been part of for 35 years. She knows all her neighbours, their children, their grandchildren, the people in the shop, the garage, the church etc. To downsize, she'd have to leave all that behind and move somewhere where she's a stranger and has not support.

We should be working on building stronger, tighter communities. Not shredding them even further.

I'm afraid it does make sense when there is such a shortage of houses for people with children. I believe the housing association has had a policy of people having to downsize to a smaller house when they no longer need the extra room. Personally I don't agree with Council houses for life.

To all the posters who are concerned about the elderly being made to pay for occupying social housing that is too large for their needs. . . .
PENSIONERS ARE EXEMPT FROM THIS RULING!

He wouldn't be happy to live anywhere else, that is why he hasn't moved! As a family we have suggested it, my parents have offered to buy him somewhere, but he chooses not to.

He also chooses not to claim hb - he wants to pay his own way. His rent is £100 a week.

usualsuspect - yes they are people just like me and you, as are the families with tiny children living in B&Bs or hostels or flats that are way too small for their needs. I give more of a toss about them than I do about an elderly couple living in a state-owned or subsidised 3 bed house where 2 bedrooms are not used. Sorry if that upsets you.

Personally I don't agree with Council houses for life.

I guess this is really the core issue and policy driver. Personally I think council houses should be for life. I think it should be a human right for everyone to have a secure place they can call home and that HB should be used to provide decent council housing for everyone rather than feathering the nests of private landlords.

usualsuspect - there is less suffering in moving from a 3 bed house where 2 are not used to a 1 bed house than there is in being left in appalling housing

Yeah, I wonder how many spare bedrooms Dave has.

Well unfortunately not everybody has a secure place they can call home. Nor is there enough council houses to go round. So until we reach that ideal situation then houses must be allocated according to need. It's the only way that is remotely fair and sensible.

Given I have previously volunteered for Crisis and still support them financially (I have 2 small children and can't get out on the streets on Saturday nights any more while they are small, will probably do so when they are older) I'd venture that I might be doing at least as much as you.

As a family of 5 about to be evicted from our private rent ( not our fault ll just wants it back ) and facing the prospect of having to move into a b&b 20+ miles from where we live where the children 6 & 2x3 will have to change schools /nursery with no gauretees there will be Place for them where we are sent and dh having än hour and a half comute either way to work i look on the Street we Live on at the minute and my parents road and all the 3/4 bed houses are Lived in by couples in 50s ans 60 whose children already left Home and feel very hård done by ;-(