for being annoyed that our tax is paying for people to buy wallpaper.

[suzexxx]

I saw a post from a girl on facebook asking whether the social could help her buy things to do up her home e.g wallpaper and paint. Alot of people commented that she could get some vouchers to use on a certain paint brand and B&Q etc.

AIBU to think this girl should save some money or attempt to get a job for extra luxeries before expecting the social to foot the bill?

I'm moving house next month and the whole house will need decorating. However i am realistic in the fact i won't be able to afford to wallpaper the whole place at once, instead doing a bit at a time as and when i can afford it. My partner earns a moderate income and i'm currently on maternity leave, so money is tighter at the moment, but would never expect someone to pay for something i could manage without like wallpaper.

I completely understand people using the social to buy essential items such as a cooker or fridge, but not non essentials.

and if you think about it you can take pride in the fact you have bought a new house yes it may take years to do up I don't know why it bothers you so much that other people get and you don't why are people envious of people on benefits cos basically it is shit

Well the main difference is that you own your home of course. You can invest in it knowing it will make a difference and at the end of it you will have a substantial asset. Something your 'friend' will not.

And I agree with the person who said wallpaper is not always a luxury. Traditionally it was used to disguise poor-quality walls, not make a fashion statement, and in local authority homes that remains the case quite a lot. I know someone who's walls were so bad that there were holes where the plaster crept crumbling. You'd fill one and within a few weeks, another chunk elsewhere would fall out. The local authority sent someone in to patch up the holes but denied it needed replastering and instead painted the whole thing in PVA glue solution. It worked, yes, but this was not a lovely smooth wall that a lick of paint made acceptable. Wallpaper was very necessary in that case.

Op, I take it that you didn't write this exact same status on your facebook wall .

I bet you wouldn't dare because , for one, everyone will realize what a shallow , smug little miss look at me aren't I great person you THINK you are .
Also , most people would probably delete you off their list.

Honestly, who the fuck do you think you are judging others ?

She will only get £50-100 in B&Q vouchers, that's hardly enough to 'decorate the whole house in one shopping spree' dh and I have easily spent £50 on a tin of paint, a roller, tray, scrapers to take off wall paper, sugar soap and masking tape. That's not going to get her very far.

our L A flats were thrown up int he late 40s early 50s and were never meant to be permanent what year are we in now

You sound delightful. Cheap basic wallpaper is £5-£10 a roll, you need 3-4 rolls per room. That adds up £100 isn't going to go far. Do you know what state her house is in? Maybe it NEEDS doing. When we moved into our last flat damp had ruined the walls, wallpaper was peeling off so we had to re do it. Maybe it's like that. But even if its not, it's not really your business. It's not £100 that's come out of your back pocket is it?

so the walls are a right mess and most of the flats have damp in them

Like this waste of taxpayer's money?

Osborne

and the fact that we're paying for second homes too?

Yet again, a nation begrudges paying small amounts to make life bearable for those worse off than ourselves, while blithely ignoring the millions siphoned off, wasted, or never even collected as tax in the first place by the rich and those in power.

She will probably end up spending it on damp treatment spray if her house is anything like mine when I moved in YABU.

why does george osbourne need 17 rooms that would be a bugger if he was paying bedroom tax eh .

Yanbu - and some of them spend their benefits on cigarettes and alcohol - I reckon give them food stamps - or the government could bulk buy and get people in benefits to go and collect their allocated food parcels.

Of course yabu - just be grateful for what you have and stop whining about what other people receive - her new flat is probably horrible at the moment - and the cost of a voucher is much less of "your" tax than getting a couple of employees painting the whole place magnolia

Agree with the others - the state some council flats are rented out in is utterly disgraceful. A few months back I helped a friend who was moving from a refuge. The place she was given was filthy - the former tenants had both been heavy smokers and the place stank. You couldn't paint the walls because there was so much nicotine embedded in the paper that the paint just slid off. When we stripped the walls with a steamer, the head caused the nicotine on the ceiling to turn to liquid and drip on us. There were vast holes and cracks everywhere too.

It was vile. And she had two small children. You couldn't have left it and done it gradually because it was a carcinogenic health hazard.

Sadly that kind of thing is fairly normal - the walls in a council place I lived in were so bad the only option was to put some thick patterned paper up.

Also, it's clearly not either a 'do it a little at a time' or 'get a voucher and do it at once' situation. my parents decided that they would like to replace the old worn kitchen tiles. They bought one box of tiles per month until they had enough for the job, as they couldn't afford to do it any other way.

My house was never meant to still be here either. Mines a prefab and it's made out of steel and tin. The internal walls have been a nightmare

While I agree OP is being unreasonable not all CT are filthy Skanks who leave their houses in a state.

I see the grant as the council looking after their own properties.

After all any other LL would make sure their houses were reasonably well decorated between tenants.

Yy usual . The next tenant to have this house won't need to decorate at all!

We left our place in a good state too - our council doesn't insist you remove carpets/flooring but apparently does it themselves.

A friend saw inside it after the council were finished - they were so damn careless removing the carpets that all the nice wallpaper was really badly damaged.

I have never heard of this grant and I have lived in a variety of council houses (still do) over the last 20 years, don't think we have it with our council in the West of Scotland.

I have no idea why they insist on you removing all carpets etc, I remember we ran out of time when we moved from our 2 bedroom to a 3 bedroom and left the living room carpet - which they then charged us for. We also had just got fitted blinds fitted a few months before our move and couldn't take them with us because the windows were different sizes, I specifically wrote to the council stating I was leaving these for the new tenant if they so wished them.....well they got ripped out to!

It's ignorant people like you that demonise people in social housing or who claim benefits. Get off your high horse and worry about tax evasion instead. It's a far bigger problem than your mate's wallpaper.

I got a home base voucher for £50. It won't carpet my boys room (bare floorboards) or cover the lime green kitchen though.

YABVVU

Yes they remove all carpets and non council floor coverings here too.

Seems daft to rip up perfectly good carpets to me.

OP do you object to govt & council buildings having wallpaper too? What about all the royal palaces?

Is it specifically the wallpaper - or perhaps all fixtures & fittings?

Maybe OP is a minimalist & was just having a throw out the chintz / IKEA type moment.

^^ what Jemma said

Coming from the perspective of a homeowner whose previous experience of viewing properties was viewing flats staged to sell, in good condition, I was horrified when I helped a friend move into her flat it was disgusting. She got a voucher to help decorate, if she didn't I would have dug into my own pocket. To expect people to live in a hovel because they are poor is disgraceful

I think by now you should have got the message that you are being unreasonable. Remember OP, you never know what's around the corner for you. I remember thinking I was hard up when I was on maternity pay and DH was still working...then I was made redundant 2 weeks before I was due to have DD2. 3yrs on and still no sign of a job I now have a better understanding of what it means to have money worries though we are still in a far better position than "your friend" on FB. Don't begrudge her, who says you won't need that kind of help yourself one day ?

when we moved in here (a 100 years ago) the neighbours were telling us that the last tennant had SS support and he had just got new carpets fitted so when he had to move out into sheltered accom the council came in and ripped all the carpets up they had been down less than 6 months , seems daft imo