Or is it unreasonable to complain about overcrowding in free accommodation?

[SomeGuy]

Just caught end of local news, they had a feature about overcrowding in London council housing. They showed a council flat, not quite sure how big it was, but it was occupied by three generations of an Asian Muslim family (a couple were wearing jilbabs), 8 in all, but apparently they count as 6 1/2 people for overcrowding because children under 1 don't count (not sure where the 1/2 comes from).

Anyway my wife's response was 'if they don't like it, they should go back where they came from' (DW is an immigrant, and shared a bed with her sister growing up - they had 7 people in two bedrooms, some would sleep on mats on the floor), given that much worse/more cramped conditions are I'm sure completely normal where they came from. If DW's parents had they wanted a bigger house they'd have to pay for it, though they'd tend to spend the money expanding their business rather than home improvements.

They had an exterior shot of the flat, which is very prime real estate, central London, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy, or several thousand per month on the open market.

Apparently Boris has promised to half overcrowding in 20 years, but it seems odd to me, obviously a family of 8 is fairly normal in Afghanistan/wherever (in large part because they don't see personal space as so important and so you can fit a lot of people in to a small place) but it really doesn't fit into central London, especially not when the taxpayer is footing the bill.

You're losing the argument faq if you need to resort to insults like that.

sorry if people are going to be blatantl selfish then I'll call them selfish.

I thinks it's fabulous you've got a job. I honestly do.

why not work you're way up - as I'm sure you will, and then buy a house of your own that won't be taking away a house that could house another family in need - which is what you once were?

Nasty and bitter about what exactly?

It's all this "me" "me" "me" mentality that I don't like.

I'm still struggling to see where I'm rubbishing anyone's attempts at bettering themselves?

There should be no discount. At all.

Or better yet, just abolish or put moratoriums on RTB or if you're going to have the buyer or his/her heirs must sell it back to the council at the same price they bought it for.

'i work 17 hours in local farm shop,but looking at having hours reduced. '

how is this bettering yourself? if you dip below 16 hours you won't be eligible for WTC anymore and you'll need partial income support.

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Yes I can't understand why you'd reduce from 17. Unless it was to 16, which is a bit OTT really. Working 16 hours per week is practically compulsory these days, unless your DH/DW makes a good wage.

erm,well its bettering myself because now i'm off benefits (income suppport) and i am looking at other jobs to do instead of this crap one/or as well as, to up the hours to more?? no? not a good idea then?

do you think i've done the wrong thing then? money issues aside,it feels GREAT to be off income support......

well if you reduce your hours below 16 you won't be eligible for working tax credit anymore, so unless it's a job that's well enough paying that you won't need it, you'll have to claim some income support again to make up the hole in your income created by not being entitled to working tax credits.

so i'm puzzled as to how reducing your hours at your 17-hour job is bettering oneself.

You get another £775/year once you get to 30 hours/week. But you'll also lose quite a bit. E.g., £6/hour 17 52 = £5304

That's a bit below the threshold, which is £6420, so if you earn £6/hour you could go up to 20.5 hours/week without losing any tax credits. The next 9.5 hours would effectively be taxed at 70% (20% income tax, 11% NI, 39% National insurance), meaning £1.80/hour net, but then once you got to 30 hours you'd get an extra £775, which would reduce your marginal tax rate on those extra hours to about 40-45%, or £3.30/hour net, which is not great but if you need the money it's not so bad. It's unlikely to make sense to work more than 30 hours per week unless you earn very much more than NMW.

hehe MissSunny - we agree about something then

You've done the right thing to work 16+ hours per week. You can get 80% of childcare costs paid too, if need be.

You would only be doing the wrong thing to stop working 16+ hours per week.

expat....i already said i'm looking at doing an extra job along side this one. its best i can do with 5 kids to look after on my own,working round school.

and the hours reduce because of employer,not because i choose to. their business isn't doing so well.

i've only just started the job. literally.

i have two interviews in sept for TA jobs,and theres a couple of other jobs for 10+ hours going too,i'll have to juggle

Nobody in this country should have to live in unsanitary, cramped conditions no matter who or what they are. I include prisoners in this. It's a basic human rights issue.

However I also think that people who can't afford large houses shouldn't have large families.

I remember watching a news report about child poverty, featuring a young woman who had 3 kids under 4, and was living in inadequate council accommodation.

I felt sorry for her and her DCs and I don't resent her being housed by the state, but I also thought well yes, I'd be a bit poor too if I has three kids and no job but that seems to be the route you have chosen to take. She acted as if the kids had come down from the sky, not as if she had taken any kind of adult decision to have a family. Kids don't 'come along', they are procreated.

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miss sunny.....you mention no negatives there. only the positives. shame.

and what about when you come out of forces? actually it worked out for me,but not others i knew back then ( almost 6 years ago so its prob changed now) i know there have been issues in the news about state of quarters,this is the MOD we are talking about here,who cannot provide basic kit for their soldiers,let alone anything for anyone else. and there has also been news items about re locating soldiers who have been medically discharged. as well as many other issues with regard to leaving HM forces. many.

so you've lived in mq's then? tried getting a mortgage on a soldiers wage? actually tried to patch up the damp in a 60's house?

have to applaud local authority for their basic maintenence of social housing.

MissSUnny - you have some odd ideas about married quarters - we lived in the middle of married quarters - once as a child, again as an adult (same area) - many of the MOD houses had been sold off.

There was no guard, there were plenty of run down houses.

However - not sure what the state or MQ's has got to do with social housing. Or what trying to buy a house on a solidiers wage has got to do with it either. there's lots of jobs with wages where people are unable to buy a house.

If they're not entitled to Social housing - they rent privately.

never mind damp in a 1960's house - you should the damp in our bathroom (1900's house) - we literally have a "wet wall"

(which will stay "wet" for the foreseeable future until the day we have money to investigate the cause and fix it)

it came up in the thread.

soldiers wages are low. but they aren't entitled to go on social housing lists. other low earners ARE. that is what it has to do with it. and you can't rent really if you dh is in the job which has frequent postings. we knew families who moved 4 times a year,with a tenancy agreement to honour its not that simple. only then to move back to the same place in another posting few years later.

i think married quarters vary and differ greatly across the country. pot luck as to where you're put.

some of our quarters also got sold off. cheaply.

That's it just make up FFS otherwise nobody will be able to leave the thread

i'm actually not coming across very well today.

but really,i thoroughly enjoyed army life!and the house i had was ok. some others though,well,not good.

ahh I see - but that brings us back to the point in question - immigrants in social housing.

Large numbers of immigrants who are on low wages will NOT be entitled to go on the social housing list because of their immigration status.

Why would you want to buy a house on a soliders wage if you're moving around the country (world) so often? and what would be the point of being on the social housing list if you may be moving somewhere else in 4 months time? I think the problem with the forces personal is not with the social housing - but the MoD and their MQ's provison.

I've only ever heard of shitty MQ's. My dad worked for several years for company that was in charge of the maintenance of MQ's - and RAF camps. well I say in charge - it was more a case of they would be sent out to inspect and would give their findings back to the MoD (or whoever it was) so that they could (supposedly) fix the problems.

He was actually based on an RAF camp (Henlow) - and was one of the last people to leave RAF Cardington when it closed down as he had to do some of the final inspections >>> - still at least the Hangers still remain - crying bloody shame they closed that camp.

can see the hangers at Cardington from where i'm sat here.....