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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that heating and hot water should be a basic right for EVERYONE?

3 replies

JakeBullet · 23/01/2013 15:01

Okay, this is sort of a thread avout another thread where the OP is without heating and hot water. The repair needed will be done this week as its a council property. However what DID come up on the thread were one or two homeowners either living without heating and hot water or who had gone long periods of time without as they were not able to afford to get repairs done.
This I find shocking, surely everyone should be able to heat their home and have access to hot water. I appreciate that some homeowners are very well off financially but many are not either because the cost of living had risen or because other issues have occurred in their lives which reduces the income.
Not everyone can sell their houses...not everyone has enough equity to be able to borrow against.
If people CAN sell then they might only have enough to cover a minimum of private renting...and not many private landlords will accept housing benefit.
Surely for people on minimum income there should also be a safety net to allow them to stay warm. Even if the person happens to be a homeowner.
Am I being unrealistic? Unreasonable?
There must be a solution to allow the cost of repairs to be repaid at a reasonable rate.

OP posts:
mummymeister · 23/01/2013 15:29

There is a solution for every problem but unfortunately with most of them come at a cost. yes, it would be good if as a society we did this but if we do then we either have to pay more taxes to cover it or we cut something in order to do this. I work from home. i do not have the heating on between 7.30am until kids get home at 4pm because otherwise it would be too expensive. i put on extra clothes and i drink hot drinks. There is lots of help out there with bills the problem is accessing the information. if i had extra money to spend on this problem then i would spend it on qualified advice workers who could make sure those on low incomes get the support that is already out there. Everytime i read a MN thread where someone says "shouldnt we be doing this/paying for this " I am reminded of Private Eye cartoon which says "Shock horror, people realise that making cuts to save money means that some things actually have to be cut"

maddening · 23/01/2013 15:59

We are in negative equity - we would have to get an unsecured loan or use a credit card if we had to replace our boiler.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 23/01/2013 16:11

I hate that it's a DM link but I was browsing over there, saw this article, and thought of this thread. Any use?

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