Working families £18k worse off than benefits claimants after budget

[shoelances]

This is madness. Can the last taxpayer in the UK please close the door behind them.

www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/households-on-handouts-to-be-18-000-better-off-than-families-on-modest-wages/ar-AA1RqxlQ

Mine was comparable for years ,
Private rent has gone up though in the last few years in my area not by the massive amount some posters seem to think though.

I think it would be great if those who couldn't buy a house for whatever reason were all able to access social housing.

Are we getting hung up on terminology. We need a uniform rental system that charges everyone equally. No increases for some and no subsidies for others.

And why are people so keen to get social housing if it is the same cost as private?

???

None of that is at all relevant to social housing?

FWIW, my social house has always been owned by the council or HA, since it was built in the 60s. The cost of building it has been repaid many times over. My rent is based on the actual cost of maintaining a property of this size. That means the rent I pay after maintenance costs have been accounted for goes towards buying more housing stock and paying wages of the HA staff.

I'd love to know how that is subsidised by the taxpayer?

That's an easy one for me.

My private rental property was unsuitable for my disabled child which is the reason why I was able to get social housing in the first place.

I am not saying that. I thought social housing tenants pay less than private rentals but other mumsnetters have corrected me.

Taking that as gospel I am saying we need uniform equal rent rates for all? Social housing rent charged at the same level as private rent and the whole system renamed.

Well that's obvious surely
You have far more security in social housing, and you can decorate etc.

I always assumed social housing was subsidised and lower than private

As @Novemberstorm says

If it isn’t then whats all this info on it

’UK social housing is subsidised through government funding for building and by keeping rents below market rates
. Housing associations and local councils receive grants and funding to build homes, and tenants pay lower rents, with social rent homes often costing around 50% of the local market rent and affordable rent homes costing up to 80%.

How it is subsidised

• Government funding: The government provides grants through programs like the Affordable Homes Programme to support the development of social and affordable housing.
• Below-market rents: Social rented homes are typically let at significantly lower rates than private market rentals to help people on lower incomes.

• Linked to affordability: The formula is designed to be affordable, with rent set based on 30% of a property's relative value and 70% of relative local income levels, both using data from 1999.
• Rent caps and predictable increases: The rent is subject to a rent cap, and annual increases are predictable. For example, from 2024-25, increases are tied to CPI plus 1 percentage point.
• Government and local authority involvement: Councils and housing associations manage social housing, and their ability to keep rents low is supported by public funding and policy frameworks.

Security, mostly.

My HA is cheaper than similar private rents but not by much, because I live in the arse end of the NE. Everything here is cheap in comparison to the South and Southeast. My BIL is constantly in awe at the price of our takeaway pizzas. I swear he visits us just for the cheap pizza.

I wouldn't move back to private letting even if it was cheaper. I've been stung too many times by LLs selling up or evicting me to raise the rent and also by rogue LL who think it is fine to leave their tenants with no hot water for weeks on end while they pocket the rent money.

Normally it is cheaper

Yep.

I'm in a cheapish town in Yorkshire. Rents are through the roof in a few certain highly desirable areas on the outskirts of the town but I literally moved 5 minutes away to social housing from where the rental property is and this part is closer to the town centre and isn't desirable at all so rents aren't expensive either including private rentals.

That is what I thought but many mumsnetters insist it is the going rate....

We need one system for all renters. Same security and same rents. If you want more security you need to buy.

Most people, in fact everyone awarded a council/social housing now, would have kids, so what would you do with such families where they are evicted for ASB?

The waiting list for council/social housing in my locality is around 10years.

Taking their children into care, will costs far more than re housing, let alone temp housing in a B&B.

But say that was done, the parent/s then left to live on the streets, committing crime, taking drugs or god forbid getting in your way as you leave the Theatre.

Just found the relevant Shelter article on Social housing noting how much cheaper it is
ie 64%

Alot will be dependent on area if you live in London or the southeast there will usually be a massive difference in social rent and private
But in a cheaper less desirable area of the UK sometimes not so much.

So you would nationalise private rented housing, paid for how exactly?

No, the ans is more and more social/council housing, gradually moving those in the private sector & in temp housing, into the public sector, this would bring down rents, save councils money and release more housing for sale.

A city council near me, has borrowed £10m to do exactly that, the savings out weigh the costs.

At the moment there is no consequence to bad anti social behaviour.

Yes the children should be put in care and their parents denied housing and benefits.

Yes it would be expensive for the children but absolutely necessary. In the long term, once people realise their behaviour has consequences I bet their behaviour would be modified.

Also if you are in a couple, there are minimum AET’s. So a couple only has to earn one 30 hour minimum wage equivalent between them to qualify for universal credit and to not be made to search for more hours

NI increased by 1.2%. That’s about £25 a month for your average nursery worker. If your childcare bill has gone up 30%, it’s not down to NIC increases.

There are no capacity in care, a massive shortage of foster parents too.

The parents may be idiots but they could be half decent parents too, every case would be different, of course, but taking the children off them as a consequence, is a bit extreme.

A better way might be to have community punishments, cleaning, litter picking etc etc as i agree, ASB needs to be dealt with harshly

They halved the threshold for employers NI also. They referenced it in the increase letter

Total cost for a worker on NMW i.e most nursery staff, is £900 to £1000 per year.

The Min wage went up too, which added another £1300.

Significant increases but do you want the staff who look after your children to earn more and those free childcare places have to be paid for, through extra taxation.

@SouthernechoI fully support min wage increases and I think that nursery workers should be paid more. They’re great. I was just pointing out the cost, and how much it has gone up in the last year, to those that might not have kids in nursery right now and might not be aware.

However let’s be real, all of the stealth tax increases by Labour have gone on their spending choices. The NI isn’t going to the free hours. And the hourly rate was put up additionally by nurseries already to cover the underfunding, so parents are paying even more.

£2.5k per child per month at nursery is a huge cost. It was £1.8k a month 2.5 years ago in London, which is meant to be more expensive

Yes they have gone on Labours spending choices, one of which is funding Free child care, up to 30hours per week... that currently costs around £8 billion this year and will keep going up as wages increase etc.

Of course the NI increases go towards childcare, along with an extra 29billion for the NHS, 7 billion extra for road mtce and the £11 billion NI cut we all got from Jeremy Hunt.
Then there is 60 billion for defence, 12 billion for PO scandal, 6 billion for blood scandal, billions for the MOD deafness compensation, even more billions for the Post Office Capture scandal, 10s of billions to improve the Prison system, billions more to remove the 80,000 cases in the courts system etc etc

All has to be paid for.

The dropping of the 2 child cap, will cost 3 billion but thats not yet in and will come from this budget, not last year