It’s not fair those renting get more universal credit?

[Bigbenbube]

I’m a lone parent on £31k-ish. I’ve worked out if I earn a few more K I Get no more universal credit, but a couple with two kids on £60k combined get £240 a week.

You're confused: the extra universal credit in the calculator you're seeing is the housing element, which goes to the landlord.

If you mean you think that either renters on universal credit should be made homeless or that people with mortgages should get them paid by benefits, well, both are absurdly unreasonable.

A mortgage is a debt and benefits shouldn't really be given to pay off people's debts for them.

Of course, we need much more affordable housing so that benefits aren't being used to pay private landlords' debts for them.

(Council housing rent goes back to the treasury, so isn't lost to taxpayers like private rent is.)

You poor thing. Owning your own home. How dreadful for you.

Because the person renting didn't take out an enormous debt they're having to repay? If you were renting instead, you could claim housing benefit. Taking out a mortgage is a risk and a choice.

Hardly my fault that house prices have risen. They normally do. I do just fine, so do my tenants, and I pay 40 percent tax on rental income on some of my houses. I sold one in 2023 and payed capital gains tax too. LL's bring 40 billion to the UK economy every year.

There are other benefits for homeowners only. I can't remember exactly what, something to do with boilers, stopping damp and loft insulation I think. They keep advertising it on facebook.

Only to the extent that payments go towards principal. Interest payments on a mortgage are essentially rent to the bank.

Stop looking downward at those with less and and start looking up at those stopping you getting more.

If a home owner lost their job in the past the government used to pay the interest on their mortgage while they were out of work. Like housing benefit.

At some point in the past 14 year that help was changed to a loan.

So if you're a home owner, & lose your job the government becomes a sort of 'equity release' agency.

Some of you probably voted for this.

Yes and they have just actually reduced the waiting time now for people to get this. So someone on UC who lost their job can now claim support for mortgage interest after 3 months on UC as opposed to the nine months it used to be. Agree it's not great it being a loan but some people used to claim the SMI for years on end whilst house prices soared, I guess they changed it to discourage people form claiming it.

I had help with mortgage interest payments for a few years on the old tax credit system, it wasn’t much or a big mortgage. While I understand the theory that the government / tax payers shouldn’t pay towards an asset, the other side of the coin is if I were in rented accommodation it would have been a much larger sum and I may have needed housing benefit forever.

did you rent and have childcare for two.

Rent is capped at local authors rates. So if it exceeds this UC don’t care.

that’s my point :)

Benefits - is state pension a benefit? You have to have NI contributions to get it? If not you get pension credit. More pensioners claiming their pension than those receiving cash benefits.

Benefits aren’t supposed to be for life - what about disability support? We have a person with a learning disability who works and get benefits.

One child. Combined income £60k (she earns £20k). Childcare £260 per week. Total Benefits £116.36.

Same couple but they own a house - £60l combined income. Basically child benefit and a couple of pound council tax help.

everyone Has to live somewhere. Why should any extra money be given to renters? Also it’s given to the claimant and not the landlord.

rhe way I see it - a colleague who gave birth on the same day as me and has a partner, they should receive the same amount of financial help I do.

Tax payers are paying towards assets if they give housing benefit to claimants. If the landlord accepts rents or benefits, they find the max housing allowance and charge it.

ao tax payer is paying towards his asset.

Because when you're renting you're giving that money straight to landlord/property owner to use that property for a month. When you're paying your mortgage you're effectively paying back a large loan that you took out in order to buy a property that would then by yours forever. You getting the same benefits would be public money being spent on paying back what is effectively your private loan to buy a property that will be yours forever.

I think all benefits aren't great and i hate the way people with the least are turned against each other when the rich get richer. The aviation industry is subsidised by £7 BILLION every year.

No because your mortgage is effectively a loan to buy yourself a property! Housing benefit if you rent is necessary miniumum to have temporary shelter. It's not an investment in your your property ownership

Tax payers are paying landlords mortgages for them though. My hideous father in law makes s racket out of renting out houses to uc tenants whilst he belittling me for owning a small house. He dodges tax too. So the tax payer happily pays his mortgage. Crazy

We don't 'happily' pay his mortgage, we recognise people deserve a roof over their head. Until there a massive social housing building programme enacted we simply tolerate the scourge of landlords like your father-in-law. No doubt at least some of the properties he rents were initially social housing stock.

I've seen locally two houses, one still within social housing stock and one now in the hands of a private landlord.

Both are of a very similar standard in terms of fixtures/fittings, gardens, driveways, state of repair (in fact the social housing one is better in this regard).

The rents? Social housing £480pm. Private £1400pm.

If you don’t use the housing element then your work allowance is higher

so if you use the rent element you can wasn’t a certain amount before deductions start

if you don’t use the rent element - because you don’t pay rent then you the amount you can earn before deductions starting is higher .

It does irk me that a double income household here can earn more than me and still claim more than I can in family tax benefit (I'm in Australia) because their limit is capped higher than mine as a dual income, despite my significantly lower income.

People forget they can sell their house.... renters can't do that. Having a mortgage means you own an asset. Renters don't...