To think that there is a misunderstanding about social housing.

[Bitchesbelike]

On social media, lots of people assume that people in social / council housing are getting a free house and don’t work.

i grew up in social housing: my dad worked from age 15 to 65.

my brothers have worked since they were 16 and both live in social housing.

its not “free housing”: it’s rented, affordable accommodation.

What about working age people who are not increasing their earnings?

But I won’t lose my home….i have the security. So why on earth would I give that up for a mortgage or private rental?

there is absolutely no benefit to my family

Another one for the MNers without children board.

Is there a childfree MN board??

one oppressed group oppressing another group Not the first time Chez Booth have experienced this either.

Was our LGBT HO who threatened DH over his disability aids.

oh yeah
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/childfree-mumsnetters/4825473-child-free-people-being-told-they-deserve-less-yet-being-expected-to-do-more

Thankee!

Right, but this thread is about people who do not live in social housing, and why they might think social housing, particularly with life time tenancies, is unfair? I asked what you thought people with a mortgage would do in that situation? I am not suggesting for one minute you would and certainly not should, give up your home. I agree, why would you? But for those who have a mortgage, they don’t have that “luxury”. You can’t pay, you are out. Hence, the resentment.

You can be evicted from a council house for not paying rent too. You can also be evicted for reasons that would never apply to people who own their home.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/eviction/grounds_for_evicting_secure_council_tenants

If it’s not subsidised then what is it? Why do people have to get on a list and qualify for a council house if it’s not cheaper than market rate rentals?

I agree also private renters can be evicted. It happend twice to me under section 21. Both times ended up homeless /temporary accommodation. I would never ever go private again.

Here Educate yourself and learn that its not just sub post masters who have been the victim of a shit computer system
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5109616-to-think-social-housing-tenants-need-their-horizon-moment-and-lessons-have-not-been-learned

And just in case you cant be bothered to click on the link cos it doesnt suit your agenda
"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"
And just like Horizon and the PO they will not admit that anything is wrong.

Because they do, even I had to many moons ago. Was on the housing list for 5 years. Priority back then been made homeless with a baby and landlord selling up.

Yes, my DP was too under section 21 as his flat was sold to a new landlord who wanted to turn it into a HMO. It took my DP several months to find somewhere else to live. His new landlord even offered him a sum of money to move out ASAP but there was just nowhere for him to go. The private rental market is pretty dire too. About 30 people interested in each property.

If so social housing isn't subsidised why do did you go through that long process? Surely private rental would have been much quicker and less stress.

Sorry, could I ask a rough indication of where this is please? Feel free to pm if you'd rather not say on here. Thanks

I'm talking 27 years ago, not many private rental then.

Just answering in general. Private landlords have been evicting families left right and centre. Under section 21. Someone could end up in temporary accommodation for a long time. Find a private rent be there a year or 2 then go through the same thing all over again. Sometimes it's worth the long process to get secure long term housing.

I've been down both roads and the upheaval of moving from rental to rental isn't fun. Add in most places won't accept pets, you can't paint walls/or even put pictures up, on edge in case something gets split on carpets with kids, waiting on white goods repairs if not your own stuff. Landlords deciding to sell, rent hikes.

Obviously the main issue is never feeling settled and like it's your own home. Which is fine when you're happy to move around more I guess, less so when you want to feel you can paint your kids room the colour of their choice, or be able to spend money on furniture without worrying will you have to get rid if it won't fit the next rental.

Yep, I don't understand how anyone can think someone in social housing would give it up to go into the private rental sector.

Exactly, couldn't afford it anyway.

Add to that, my HA home is built for people with disabilities. If I move out because I have bought somewhere I would need to retrofit everything that is already here, the wide doorways, high up plug sockets, low down light switches, flat entrance / exit.

There is money available from the government for that but why should taxpayers pay when I am currently adequately housed.

I do however think that if you have received HB or UC housing element if you buy a HA or council property that should be added on to the cost. Actually I'm not sure you should be able to buy HA/council properties but as you can then it should not be subsidised as much as it is.

If they were unable to increase their earnings they presumably wouldn't be over the threshold for social housing.

What about the people who could increase their earnings, but choose not to?

That's pretty hard to measure/evaluate. There could be very reasonable reasons why someone doesn't increase their earnings, such as only being able to work certain hours due to childcare, a disability meaning they may struggle to increase their hours. Or it may be that just can't be bothered.