To think that a 23k benefits cap will drive some families in the SE

[Minifingers9]

... Into destitution?

I live in a pretty unappealing and comparatively cheap part of greater London but you can't get a 3 bedroom rental for under £1400 a month.
If we lost our jobs we wouldn't be able to live on 23k a year as a family of 5. Not when 15k of it was going on rent.
Why don't they have regional benefit caps?

"Wanting to live in an area you can't afford to live in and expecting taxpayers to pay for it is as ridiculous as demanding a car you can't afford."

Wanting to live in an area where you can find work/have work, where your children are at school, where perhaps your elderly parents are, where you are part of a community, where it has become unaffordable because of policies intending to gain support from the home owning middle-classes?

Seriously sad at the belief that it is appropriate to break up communities with deep roots because no government will address the problem of affordable housing in the SE.

I am undecided on this as someone who has always been part of a working family but was recently forced onto benefits through no choice of our own.

I'm not sure the cap is the best way to approach things BUT we do need to STOP the culture of benefits as a way of life which our country has sadly fallen into. Benefits should be a stop gap, not a way of life. The only people who should be relying on benefits full time at a working age are those who are sick/disabled and unable to help themselves.

We all know redundancies happen but there ARE jobs out there, just a lot seem to think they are "too good" to do them... I know of several people who have been made redundant and got other jobs within a few weeks if not a few days as they DID NOT GIVE UP and they didn't pick and choose.

I do agree that rent in the SE is insane. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people actually pay it...

Regarding regional variations on wages, do companies still pay a London weighting ?
Thinks can be expensive all over the country, we don't get everything free if we live outside London ! Plus many of us outside major cities dint get the benefit of 24hrs public transport to get to and from work.

I thought that national employers often paid a London Weighting?

www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/working-in-the-nhs/pay-and-benefits/agenda-for-change-pay-rates/

If you are on benefits and can't afford to live in the most expensive part of the country then surely you would consider moving? Why should the government subsidise a life in such an expensive place?

What choice do we have not to pay it if we need to live here? As for "the rules"- I know for a fact the flat we rent has no mortgage and they stuck the rent up £200 a month because they could. Is that the rules?

Why would you need to live in London though? You can move, there are jobs and schools outside of London.

I feel it's a very narrow definition of 'community' that only families who've lived there for God knows how many generations, can belong. Tbh that sort of thinking can lead to closed minded attitudes. Often having a wider breadth of experience, by moving around and living in more than one place, is enlightening and good for communities.

Change can often be hard, but it doesn't mean it's wrong. Honestly, it never occurred to me to feel entitled to live in the area I grew up.

Chaz it looks like the highest available London weighting in the NHS is £6342 per annum. Morethan's link takes you to five bedroom house on the market for £200,000.In my nearest (remember - not London) town the cheapest five bedroom house currently on the market is being advertised for £750,000. NHS London Weighting is a drop in the ocean.

True, it was more of answer to those who said that unless wages were regionalised then the benefit cap shouldn't be either. Wages are regionalised to an extent to take into account that London is more expensive. It may not be enough to make a material difference but it does give some legitimacy to the idea that the benefit cap could take into account regional differences.

Can I ask a question about the cap?

It was 26k previously and has dropped to 23k yes?

Then how can the Daily Mail constantly run stories about people claiming 70k worth of benefits a year etc? I'm obviously missing something but can't work out what.

I know for a fact the flat we rent has no mortgage and they stuck the rent up £200 a month because they could. Is that the rules?

Absolutely those are the rules. Other similar properties were obviously attracting a higher rent so your landlord felt the time was right to up his/her rent. They aren't in it for the good of their health, they are running a property rental business. What is the problem with that, and why does the fact they own it outright make a difference?

Why would you need to live in London though? You can move, there are jobs and schools outside of London.

There are also these new fangled things called trains/buses/coaches that run from the suburbs into C. London at just the right times to get you to and from work. The things they think of these days!

It was me saying that! :)
In my area NHS workers might get a fringe weighting of between £950 and £1649 per annum. The houses being used as examples are £550,000 more expensive in my area.
In those terms regional variations for benefits would be so tiny they would be almost invisible.

Program on tv last night, benefits Britain, a family of 16 getting 70 k a year. Couple decided to have 14 kids.

I think if you do some research into figures candles you will find that there are very very few families that large getting benefits. Its less than 150 families nationwide who have over 8 children (or something like that).

I agree that nobody should be having such large families in this day and age but we don't yet dictate to others what they can and cannot do.

Am guessing one or both parents are working to be receiving that amount.

Those getting huge amounts of benefits invariably do so because they have loads of kids and some of those kids they claim DLA for I imagine. Claiming DLA gives loads more in tax credits as well as the DLA moneyand excludes these families from the cap.

Justwhy, I think if the couple are working they are exempt from the cap. Same thing if one of them or a child is in receipt of disability allowance.

Fourteen kids though....rather them than me.

On the other hand if those 14 children grow up to be fully functioning members of society then great, the investment in the family has been worthwhile. I didn't see the program though and have no idea about them. Cannot stand these property porn shows to be honest, the don't government anything like a true picture of what it's like to live on benefits. They show extreme cases and then stand back and watch the fireworks as usually intelligent people extrapolate what they see and apply it to every benefit claimant.

We all know redundancies happen but there ARE jobs out there, just a lot seem to think they are "too good" to do them... I know of several people who have been made redundant and got other jobs within a few weeks if not a few days as they DID NOT GIVE UP and they didn't pick and choose.

Are you absolutely sure about that? Usually the first jobs people apply for when they've been made redundant are those very similar to their previous jobs and at a similar pay level.

It's so much easier to find a job if you've only recently been made unemployed than if you've been out of work a while.

Grateful, think program was on channel 4 if you want to check. Didn't see beginning but looked like neither parent worked . I don't have aproblem with big families would of liked to have one myself, but we knew we couldn't afford it..
Check previous posts and you will see a question asked by another about families on70k benefits.

....but they won't just get DLA unless it's needed. The form is 30 pages long and very very detailed. Someone with loads of kids cannot just turn up and say "I wanna claim DLA because little Johnny here is hard to manage and we think he has ADHD".

Nope "little Johnny" will need ongoing assessment and over several years before getting anywhere near a diagnosis....if he even requires one.

Might have a watch of it.

Fourteen kids is beyond belief although I once met a woman who had 12!

Those families on those programmes are not representative. That's just TV.

...and yes, as a parent of a child who gets DLA I get extra tax credit, it allows me to be at home which is a god send given the number of appointments and meetings I am attending at the moment.