To think this is a cruel policy, and not an actual 'tax'?

[katykuns]

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/25/spare-bedroom-tax-contradiction-impossibility?CMP=NECNETTXT766

I just think its unrealistic, and completely ignores reality that it is not just easy to drop everything and move. It is also very unfair to the disabled.

Why can they not target the damn landlords charging extortionate rents?

It is not directly affecting me, but I do claim housing benefit and I work, and life is hard. I just feel like it makes it impossible to live with a 14-25% cut of your benefit.

Its not a tax, its a benefit cut. Say it as it is ... just another attempt to make people struggling to get by struggle even more!

I think they will fill the other room with a new baby and stay where they are

I know, it's mad, isn't it? Of all the daft reasons to have a baby - but it makes practical sense under these daft rules!

Then everybody can come on here and whine about shirkers having kids to get a bigger house ... oh, they already do.

Where can I get a child? Anybody got one too many??

YY, sudaname, it's hardly unusual for tenants to have DC spending part of the week with them - on camp beds in the living room, from now on :(

its v wrong what ive said but its true and it will happen. not from me i like my sleep too much

Yes garlic l can almost see the poor stepchild/ren rolling up with the sleeping bag under their arm/s and the stepmother and the stepsiblings looking out the window thinking grrrrr.... there goes our beds/bedrooms for a couple of nights.
Methinks stepparenting board will be getting even busier than usual soon.

we will just learn to live off less, at eleven yrs old I wouldn't expect sd to come if she had to sleep on a campbed or in our room and its also against the housing association rules. can see what you mean though some people will have no option

Fanfucking.

The only thing that is relevant for the HB assessment is the disturbance created to the child who would be expected to share with the child who has a disability.

So make sure you include that in your letter and it would be helpful if you an get a docters letter confirming night time disturbance.

Waiting, it is not actually against the rules. Its only against the rules if its a child's normal residence for the LA to only allocate a room to share.

Sharing under those circumstances on a temp basis is not ideal but it is not against the law.

I know a lot of people/couples who work ft and live in social housing, they could be saving a lot of money because the rents for council houses are very low compared to private rents, 3bed house is £90pw in my mums area and privately it is more like £600 on average. These people have a lot of excess money, they go to Florida every year and redecorate their house every spring, they have a comfortable life, they do not need social housing now, they are no longer in need iykwim, but they wouldn't move and I can't blame them!

And they probably won't be effected at all by these rules because if there not hard up they either won't be on HB or if they are they won't be bothered by the room charge.

So they won't move and the house won't be freed up

OTTMummA "3bed house is £90pw in my mums area and privately it is more like £600 on average. "

£600 a week!!

Suda, it is extremely uncommon for non resident parents to currently get awarded an extra room for a child who isn't with them more than 50% of the time anyway. It won't make much difference to step families.

But thankfully not all step parents(ie. new partners) and their children are as nasty as you describe, begrudging space in their homes going to their step children.

Sorry, 600pcm, mum always tells me in weeks for her rent, private rents are shown in pcm, forgot to make the distinction. Still that's quite a gap. Where I am (nearer to London) council 3 bed is 4-500pcm and private rental 3 bed upwards of 950pcm

Choc that's my point that they dont get an extra room so when a child or children comes to stay with their NR parent then there is going to be a lot of sharing,squeezing in etc to be done if the family home is one chosen deliberately to not fall foul of these rules i.e. no extra rooms/just enough for resident Adults /DCs if there are any. That's a point actually what if a couple rent a house and one partner is childless and the other partner has say two NR children from a previous relationship. Do they seriously have to rent a one bed house or get penalised. They can hardly have stepchildren sleeping in the same bedroom as the stepchild/children can they ? Social services wouldnt be too impressed.

Sorry l wasnt suggesting stepparents and stepsiblings are nasty or begrudging of their space. Was just trying to say it wont help in what can already be a complex challenging situation (one only needs to read the stepparenting board) in which unfortunately resentment does at times raise it's head. Some of these issues do centre around space or a lack of it when two families are 'blended'. Where there is already such an issue this new rule is not going to help one iota and will only compound it.

Suda, my point was, non resident parents are not currently allowed to claim for a room for a non resident child so unless they already have an extra room, non resident parents wont be affected.

Currently, non resident parents cannot get housing benefit for a child who they do not claim child benefit for.

Currently, non resident families have to make do and fit people in and squeeze. And yes, it has meant non resident children kipping in their parent's rooms or the non resident parent and their partner sleeping in the living room while the child/ren sleep in their room while they visit. This wont be a new thing. This is how non resident parents have had to live for a long time.

I agree with it

something has to be done. taxpayers money is being used to build more homes, yet we have people in 2-3 bed houses they dont need

Near my exLA home we have countless families in nice council homes with spare bedrooms they dont need. My Neighbours did have their teenage mum granddaughter living there. but guess what! she got a council flat. madness

I am no poor basher but it cant be that EVERY SINGLE BUDGET CUT gets bashed.....comeone some logic is needed

How the fuck can they save money? as clearly everything is sacred right?

I think it's a great idea. After all, there are all these 1 and 2 bed places standing empty just waiting for people to move into them!

Oh no, hang on, that's not quite right is it . . . . ?

many familes are overcrowded
many families have houses that are too large

all funded by the public purse. swap em

'I am no poor basher but it cant be that EVERY SINGLE BUDGET CUT gets bashed.....comeone some logic is needed

How the fuck can they save money? as clearly everything is sacred right?'

People over 61 are exempt, no matter that that's not even pensionable age and plenty of those people are working. People in social housing but not in receipt of housing benefit are not affected, no matter how many are working.

But you're not a poor basher

How can they save money? Let's start with MP's 'expenses', those scroungers expense their rent, Sky bill, even their lunch, despite earning £62k/annum for an essentially part-time job with 12 weeks holiday/annum.

Let's then move on to the billions of pounds that are 'tax-avoided', corporate subsidies.

Oh, troops to Mali. How much is that costing?

But nah, the few people who are actually affected by this (given that people age 61+ are exempt and people in social housing who are not claiming HB) are a more visible target for ignorant people to hate.

expat

personally I have no issue with MP expenses. I think its ridiculous we expect people to leave industry (or law etc..) and then run the country for £45K. Now duck ponds aside its a fucking mess, but I do think they need to take a more realistic view at MP salaries which will stop people rakling it back another way

Mali, on the one hand I know fuck all about it. But I do happen to know the defence budgets are getting cut. and whteher we like it or not we get ALOT of tax revenue from oil firms in Algeria, and we need to adress the situation there

Rich not paying tax, yup I agree with you on that one but pragmatically, even when they dont pay tax they still generate revenue, which is the issue. Its just millions, not billions

I think though that people HATE the tories so much that there is an almost knee jerk reaction to any tax cut

Did I need child benefit? did I hell. I liked it, but I can live without it

I used to vote labour but even then I could see their current spending levels were crazy

Seeng something as a pragmatic solution is NOT poor bashing

to me what they have suggested makes sense, it might redress the balance a bit in homes funded by housing benefit.

why stay in a home with more room than you need, when you dont pay for it.

Sockreturningpixie

My claim has been successful, they admitted that their own policy is to offer and assessment for disabled children to see if they require their own room, so I've got three bedroom allowance now.

Just in time for the letter to drop on my mat from my landlady saying I will receive another Section 21 in March, making me homeless in May. And the council are trying to wiggle out of even giving me a house, trying to get me to get another private rental, except I haven't yet see a three bedroomed flat or bungalow going in this area, and certainly no adapted houses, so what am I going to do about moving into unfit accommodation? They won't let me do it myself and then house me, so why can they do it to me?

Have GRRRRRRRS coming out of my ears, like steam. Back on to fighting the long fight, trying to have my family housed appropriately, given the appropriate money, and receiving appropriate services. Never mind the fact that I'm disabled, feel like shit, want to lie down right now and just not wake up.

Except I won't, I've made the phonecalls, organised appointments, getting support, gathering information and will continue the fight. Hopefully the doc will up my tranquillisers again, so I don't implode with stress.

'I think its ridiculous we expect people to leave industry (or law etc..) and then run the country for £45K.'

They're on £60K. And it's part-time.

It only works, MrsBucket, if people move. But, given there's nowhere to downsize to, many will just suck it up, be poorer and not move at all.

Fgs £42k is hardly poor and expat is right, its 60k.
They are rolling in it whilst us mw and unemployed bare the brunt.

60k plus "expenses" (and we all know how that has worked out).
For years as a community midwife I was paid at public transport rate mileage (13p a mile at the time) for petrol plus wear and tear on my car. In the meantime MPs were getting 45p a mile.
Fact is some MPs on all sides worked that to their advantage.