to think it is fair enough that High earners, earning £30000 pa have to pay market rates for social housing.

[NoahVale]

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/04/david-cameron-ally-rohan-silva-firms-must-be-forced-raise-low-pay

I spose there has to be a cut off somewhere, and I spose it helps that I dont earn £30,000,
no doubt if it was just in the bracket I might feel a bit peeved.

Id happily give up my council house for a secure private rental one, or at least one with a longer contract. I cant quite afford it, but Id certainly consider where I could cut back to be able to. Though as I am in a secure tenancy, without a lottery win or some long lost relative leaving me their fortune in a will, there isn't a chance in hell that Id leave that behind.

My Rtb application pack came this morning !

I appreciate my fortunate postion but I had hoped someone with a slight bit of intelligence had thought about tackling the unscrupulous landlord side of it With introducing a mandatory secure tenancy or something similar ... Instead they have stopped tax breaks on buy to let mortgages thus forcing landlords to put their rents up further increasing market rate ,.. And so the merry go round for £30k and over social tenants continues .

I want to explain myself well but it never transfers from my brain to actuall words so bare with me for this next bit.

This 30k and over thing has been sprung on us . For years we have balanced our books and cut our cloth according to budget . however we can not just find £300 PCM to cover the excess rent and maintain doing this . I'm not suggesting I want sympathy for having to pay car finance or other bits of hp but careful consideration was taken before we committed ourselves to these bills based on the fact we could afford them . We can't stop the payments . Our rent was set by the council so we paid it at the amount they said .it just feels sneaky and underhand and such a bolt from the blue .

I know I will get flamed for that last paragraph but ikwim ... And I'm sure other council tenants will too . I bet there are tonnes of us that got out tenancies at a low point in our life's and despite that we have clawed our way back to a decent exsistance , all to be financially punished for trying ... We are £2k over the limit btw

no I don't blame you toofat

as much as I don't agree with rtb dh and I are now considering it

am not paying them 300 fucking month extra for fuck all

But while the supply is so small, I would like it to go to those most in need, to those living in totally inadequate accommodation / b and bs. Anyone who can choose to work less to keep a benefit doesn't realise how lucky they are

^ this

I don't think you deserve flaming toofat, I am just rather grateful not to rely on benefits and social housing.

I disagree with your position on btl landlords though. Prices have increased because of demand.

I would add, for those who are thinking of reducing their hours to stay below the threshold, who's to say that the threshold won't be reduced in years to come? I think today's budget is proof that the state is shrinking - and will continue to do so. Personally I think people who are making major financial decisions (where to live, how many hours to work, how many children to have) on the assumption that their benefits won't change in the future are misguided

Exactly, and your children wont be children for ever. If they still live at home and get a job would you penalise them for wanting to work full time? I hope not.
Who are these employers who let you reduce your hours to suit?

I'm torn about it.

I was housed by the council when I became officially homeless during a c-section.

I then went on to study, met my husband who earnings throw us way over the £30k threshold. I work too, but our plan was always to use the opportunity of low rent to save the deposit to buy our own home. We have till March 2017.

I don't begrudge this in OUR Situation but 30k is not a lot in the area I live, people who want to better themselves are being pushed back. If I were closer to the threshold of do all I could to drop under it!

The same ones that've been fine with people only doing 16 and then 24 hours for years noah. As for adult children living at home, people have given examples of them being asked to give up their jobs upthread.

As for adult children living at home, people have given examples of them being asked to give up their jobs upthread.

Great lesson they're teaching their children. I despair!

My DS is disabled and the past three years has needed me at times to be home for him. I've managed this by doing a few months of work during settled times and claiming benefits during the non settled times. Currently we are in a non settled time and I am not working. I get Carers Allowance and income support.

What this budget means to me is the removal of the choice to work during settled times (hear me out before condemning).

When I work I am already worse off as I lose Carers Allowance and most of my housing benefit. WTC doesn't go anywhere NEAR making this up. But being in work is great and I hang on as long as possible. Inevitably DS becomes more needy fir s period of time and then I take a few months away from work to resettle him before going back.

This budget though means that in working I won't just be worse off but significantly so. I'd be in the "new claim" group if after next April.

Not actually worth my while trying to keep some employment history on my CV while coping with the needs of DS.

So I won't now go back to work until DS is old enough for college and more independent. Only then could I earn enough not to rely on tax credits at all.

The various calculators are confusing me though. Some suggest I'd be better off and others much worse off.

To he honest if I can work at times I want to. I just don't want to be in the position of struggling to pay rent etc. I have enough stress already.

With respect strangechild, it doesn't really make any difference what anyone thinks of people taking action to ensure they remain under the threshold. Nor even whether it turns out to be the best decision for the long term, especially as a lot of people are in the sort of work where doing more hours now is no guarantee of progression or even having a job later on. It just matters that people are going to be doing it (also bear in mind that a good number of potentially affected households will have lost a grand or more in tax credits following yesterday's announcements, so that's part of their income reduced for them already). I can't understand why so many people seem unable to accept what they're being told by people who are at the coalface here.

Incidentally, I also foresee an increase in cash in hand work as people look for ways to make up the lost income on the quiet. Won't give any examples for that one though!

Incidentally, I also foresee an increase in cash in hand work as people look for ways to make up the lost income on the quiet. Won't give any examples for that one though

definitely

Well we are deffo fucked, we have looked at RTB but because I'm disabled and we live in a one bedroom bungalow built for disabled people we cannot do RTB. I'm now very worried as there is no way we can find an extra ?300 from our budget every month so there's a good chance we'll be homeless in the future.

Where I grew up, SE London, our estate was built in the late 60s . Reason being (in our case) they were demolishing houses in Greenwich (East) to make their own little estate with houses (the houses demolished were rented at that time by agencies, , was like that a lot back then).

My Dad worked and so did my Mother once I went to Infants/Primary. Rent was whatever it was back then paid weekly by cash (talking late 60s and the 70s here before DD was the norm or rent cards etc).

The large estate I now live on was built as Homes for Heroes between the wars and housed folks mainly from Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Deptford "Slum dwellings" as they called them . My own Grandparents for a while lived on my estate.

Where I grew up, SE London, our estate was built in the late 60s . Reason being (in our case) they were demolishing houses in Greenwich (East) to make their own little estate with houses (the houses demolished were rented at that time by agencies, , was like that a lot back then).

My Dad worked and so did my Mother once I went to Infants/Primary. Rent was whatever it was back then paid weekly by cash (talking late 60s and the 70s here before DD was the norm or rent cards etc).

The large estate I now live on was built as Homes for Heroes between the wars and housed folks mainly from Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Deptford "Slum dwellings" as they called them . My own Grandparents for a while lived on my estate.

Where I grew up, SE London, our estate was built in the late 60s . Reason being (in our case) they were demolishing houses in Greenwich (East) to make their own little estate with houses (the houses demolished were rented at that time by agencies, , was like that a lot back then).

My Dad worked and so did my Mother once I went to Infants/Primary. Rent was whatever it was back then paid weekly by cash (talking late 60s and the 70s here before DD was the norm or rent cards etc).

The large estate I now live on was built as Homes for Heroes between the wars and housed folks mainly from Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Deptford "Slum dwellings" as they called them . My own Grandparents for a while lived on my estate.

Sorry, I only posted ctrl and enter ONCE so why it is there thrice I do not know.

How are people working out how much they will have to pay? Where are you getting the market rate amounts from? I live in a council flat in London, and I'm not sure how to work out the market rate. Two bed private rents are really expensive around here looking at Rightmove, but most of them are in nice new build apartments (with gyms, concierge and rooftop terraces) so I don't think it would be fair to use them as the market rate as my flat is in no way comparable!

Although I am a single mum and on carer benefits so it's not actually going to affect me personally, but there some neighbours who are in two parent working households and they might be.

For rent, I looked on rightmove. There's not a huge private market here for ex-SH rentals, like you it's mainly new build, but there are a handful so I copied that. For discounts, I know the purchase prices in the area anyway but checked rightmove then used RTB calculator. No idea how it'd be calculated if there's no private rental market for your type of home in the area, tbh. Another flaw with this plan and with the idea that we actually know what a free market price would be generally.

30k is not a high income!

We live outside London with a household income of 34K. We have 5 children whom all live with us (two are my partner's from a previous relationship, two are mine from a previous relationship and a baby together). We have a 3 bed council house. We don't go abroad, we live carefully, don't have a car and we just about make do.

We get tax credits and these are set to drop by 2K due to the new budget. Our rent will (it appears) rise from £600 a month to nearer £1400 (average local rent for a 3 bed terraced in this area). We are going to be £1000 a MONTH worse off. We can't afford it, no way! We have no idea what the hell we are going to do. We don't earn enough to buy a property and can't easily move away to a cheaper area due to our ex's both having contact with the kids via Court Orders.

Thanks MuffMuff Just checked for some ex council flats nearby on Rightmove and they are over £300pw more expensive than my council flat But they are nicer than council flats here (newly decorated, new bathroom/kitchen plus furnished) so still an unfair comparison. There aren't any flats on my own estate on Rightmove listed at the moment (they come up for rent sometimes) and I'm not convinced that they would be equivalent to the ones I've seen on Rightmove - it's a bit scruffier and less desirable although just a few streets away.

You're a good example of someone who might not only be better off reducing their income than paying the extra mrschieftyrell, but might have no real choice but to do so. Based on what you've said, you'd be 12k a year worse off paying the extra rent as opposed to 4k a year worse off reducing your income. If there's a way for you to earn another 12k a year or more, perhaps by working more hours, obviously that's a viable option and may well be better long term. If there's not, and with 5 DC I'm going to hazard a guess your childcare isn't cheap, naturally you're going to be thinking about how to get under the 30k cap. Cutting work hours is always an option, so is simply stopping claiming certain benefits (there's no law that you have to claim CB when you're eligible, for example). Someone will be along in a minute either to claim that people in your situation don't exist or to tell you it's your own fault for having 5 DC, though. Hope you manage to work something out.

I have every confidence that the inferior state of the council properties will be factored into the 'market rent' calculation spiderjump. Ahem.

Is anyone else going to be so badly affected as us? £1000 a month worse off!

What happens when we can't afford the rent? Homeless? Rehoused by the Council? We are being forced toiveraeky rede our income to just under 30k to avoid financial ruin and homelessness. HOW is this right or in any way productive?