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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if Labour really will scrap the bedroom tax?

285 replies

GaryShitpeas · 05/12/2014 16:34

Not going to go into why i am against it but I am. Doesn't affect me ATM as not on Hb but I probably will need to be in the future.

But I personally will be voting labour for this reason alone ....this is the first time I've ever voted Blush (to my shame) because I want it gone. But I wonder if they'll actually keep their promise.....

OP posts:
writtenguarantee · 10/12/2014 16:09

People who are healthy and of working age should have to pay for their luxuries, and spare rooms are luxuries.

everyone should have to pay for luxuries.

Greengrow · 10/12/2014 16:56

It's disgusting the people hog empty rooms when needy families need them. I would also where there is a shortage of one beds have two mothers with their babies in one two bed property. Lots of people who don't claim from the state have to share rooms in houses so I don't see why benefits claimants need to be feather bedded.

BackOnlyBriefly · 10/12/2014 18:01

You got me! Grin

BackOnlyBriefly · 10/12/2014 18:14

I would also where there is a shortage of one beds have two mothers with their babies in one two bed property.

See? expand that idea and you have the dormitories and then since the places don't actually exist already they will have to built quickly. Perhaps on moors and commons?

And because they won't be in convenient places they will need special camp buses to get to work.

There's a great scene in Schindlers List where the people are assigned a place to live and they are shocked to realise it's not the whole house, but just one room upstairs. Then as they tell each other they can live with that several other families come in the room and they realise they don't even get one room per family.

writtenguarantee · 10/12/2014 21:55

There's a great scene in Schindlers List where the people are assigned a place to live and they are shocked to realise it's not the whole house, but just one room upstairs.

how did the nazis get in?

BackOnlyBriefly · 10/12/2014 23:09

Not the nazis especially, but the only example I could bring to mind that matched what I was saying. It was about taking away their rights to have homes because of who they were. It was about moving all the people you don't like into a 'poor area' so you can give their homes for people who matter.

We've gone from 'poor people should be forced to downsize' to 'poor people shouldn't be allowed a home each'.

I think the dormitory thing is inevitable and I think it will be popular.

writtenguarantee · 10/12/2014 23:26

'poor people shouldn't be allowed a home each'.

no. Only you said that. The other side just said downsize, like everyone else who can't afford luxuries has to do.

WetAugust · 10/12/2014 23:29

I don't think all this is being done by design, as it's just too disorganised and ill thought out. Its just the worst sort of headline pandering politics.

The whole private sector needs regulation. It's a disgrace that we are pouring Housing Benefit into some private rentals that are slums. But until there is minimum standard or some form of inspection, the unregulated market will permit this abuse.

writtenguarantee · 10/12/2014 23:30

the unregulated market will permit this abuse.

the things that permits this abuse is that tenants have nowhere to go. you can only corner people into slums if there isn't any other housing.

BackOnlyBriefly · 10/12/2014 23:39

writtenguarantee maybe you missed this one.

I would also where there is a shortage of one beds have two mothers with their babies in one two bed property.

And it's been said before in recent years.

WetAugust · 10/12/2014 23:48

If the slum accommodation fails muster it should not qualify for HB and therefore standards would have to rise.

You cannot seriously be suggesting in this day and age that single mothers should be sharing houses. If they wished to do that voluntarily I could see some benefits as it would provide support for each other, shared chores, reduced utility bills, baby sitting etc. But to force it on people would be political suicide

writtenguarantee · 10/12/2014 23:50

And it's been said before in recent years.

the referred to sentence doesn't make any sense. what does it mean?

Original poster
GaryShitpeas · 11/12/2014 08:57

Jesus

Some of the comments on this thread are disgusting

OP posts:
Original poster
GaryShitpeas · 11/12/2014 08:57

Genuinely makes me sad that some people think like this Sad

OP posts:
SaucyJack · 11/12/2014 09:01

Google Godwin's Law written

And anyone who genuinely thinks the loss of the spare room subsidy compares to the Holocaust needs to slap themselves repeatedly round the face with the grip stick.

WetAugust · 11/12/2014 09:42

if we had held this discussion on MN 5 years ago I doubt a single poster would have been FOR this bedroom tax/subsidy

how times have changed

Greengrow · 11/12/2014 10:09

Wow. Many many many parents who work live in shared houses yet the poor think they are entitled to all their own space! This is what we have come to and why the nation is bankrupt.

Original poster
GaryShitpeas · 11/12/2014 10:13

Greengrow you and your opinions are utterly vile

Fuck off to your private island you horrible person (oh sorry you lost it in your divorce didn't you Grin)

OP posts:
oswellkettleblack · 11/12/2014 10:47

Many, many working parents do not live in shared houses you are talking such bollocks, Green. I've been a working poor parent for 12 years as are all my friends I don't know any working parents who live in a house share. I grew up the child of a working poor single mum as well, in the 80s. We had a flat.

Plenty of 'the poor' are in work.

Original poster
GaryShitpeas · 11/12/2014 11:20

Plenty of "the poor" are in work

^ this

OP posts:
PeachyTheSanctiMoanyArse · 11/12/2014 11:22

I knew a working parent in shared accommodation; zero hours contracts meant keeping anything else together on a stable basis was impossible.

The other tenants weren't around for long and some were a concern and now she doesn't have custody any more. In fact the child isn't in the UK as her ex is abroad and she hasn't seen him for over a year as he can't leave that country due to immigration rules whilst status is processed.

Poor woman, she chose to give up son as she felt he deserved more stability and I think that was brave of her but almost killed her.

The thing is, over crowded housing and instability are linked to low educational outcomes, poor health and unemployability: things that cost the UK a lot financially. Poor housing (bottom end of private sector) is the same, of course.

I don't support the tax, I think people should be required to move into smaller where it is available and if they refuse then a subsidy is OK, but there should be more exclusions (disabled adults needing a separate room for storage of equipment or who can't sleep together being a significant one). I also think that pensioners shouldn't be exempt- and this would affect me as my parents are in council housing albeit still working at seventy- many can afford the top ups and if decent accommodation (local to area) is available hen it makes sense. I know my parents wouldn't move as they provide essential childcare for all of us but I think we sisters could chip in to cover that extra cost when they stop work, seems only fair (they don't have pensions because their scheme collapsed just as they hit retirement age, not from lack of putting aside- lots hundreds of thousand and the plan to leave council housing and purchase a bungalow was ruined).

Greengrow you really should attempt at least to display some empathy for those less well off. It does wonders for a person. We are not subject to the tax (neither in council, nor without work) but I can see so many flaws in it.

19lottie82 · 11/12/2014 11:25

Of course Many working people DO live in shared accommodation! I worked FT for 8 years and lived in flat shares because I couldn't afford my own place. And that's in Glasgow. Most working single people in London have to flat share. I tried to get a LHA flat and they wouldn't even put me on the housing list.

19lottie82 · 11/12/2014 11:26

Apologies...... I re read the posts and missed out the working "parents" in shared accommodation part.

Pagwatch · 11/12/2014 12:53

These conversations constantly highlight how sections of the population genuinely have no notion of the challenges facing the poor, the disabled and those simply trying to keep their heads above water.

If you are lucky enough to have no financial problems, have had full employment and are firmly placed on the housing ladder it is easy to look at others who are struggling with a sense of superiority and a simplistic notion of how easy it is to work ones way up.
It is simply not that easy but to understand that requires intelligence, empathy and humility.

I am often shocked at the few regular voices who display equal measures of arrogance and stupidity by lecturing people who's lives they lack the wit to comprehend.
I think they assume it makes them seem incredibly clever and superior. It doesn't. It makes them look like people who gained an education which failed to erode their natural inclination to boorish, clogging, thickness.

hoobypickypicky · 11/12/2014 13:31

Greengrow, your post is vile, dense and hideously arrogant.

These poor people were living in one room. See how far it got them.

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