£25,000 benefits cap

[Xenia]

Average family has £26,000 to live on including housing. So from 2013 the most benefits available for one family will be £26,000 including housing benefit. Sounds like a sensible plan. Well done George Osborne. How did we ever get to a contrary position in the first place?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11463435

The market will sort itself out as it normally does. People have always moved. Many of our ancestors will have moved across countries and even continents.

MaMoTTaT - the overall result should be a more even, efficient market - with lower rents in the currently high rent areas and higher rents in the low areas. What is happening is that state subsidy of private landlords that has been keeping rents artificially high is being reduced.

In terms of the unemployed moving, I think councils will find ways to help them move, in terms of the employed people have always moved for work. The problem is if living where you already have work becomes to expensive, which some of these changes should (ultimatly) help with.

These macro changes don't necessarily help you in the short or medium term though.

Xenia - Yes, but we do so less here than in many other countries, so it will require a bit of a cultural shift.

This will have the same effect on buying houses as well.

The Irish who are in a much worse state than we are are starting their regular emigration again. In the 1930s I had relatives who had to emigrate. It's normal in all countries and times. If things get too hard here people will move where things are less hard even if that's just across the country.

I was looking at the house where my mother moved aged 10. 3 bed terraced houses on that street in 2010 cost about £50,000. There are cheaper bits of the country than those in which some of us live.

how would the council help those in private rented homes move?

I don't think we'll ever have an "even" market.

I do worry that moving the unemployed to cheaper areas isn't going to be moving them to the jobs.......

I mean you could ship a load of unemployed people from Loudlass' town up to my town - it's preety cheap (average £550 for a 3 bedroom house)...........but they won't find work. There are already more unemployed than there are jobs.

I always wonder with the "poor people on benefits should move" comments. How do they think poor people on benefits can afford to move?

'The Irish who are in a much worse state than we are are starting their regular emigration again. In the 1930s I had relatives who had to emigrate. It's normal in all countries and times. If things get too hard here people will move '

If it's outwidth the EU, you'll need a visa for that.

Across the country? To what, no jobs?

You really want to go back to the days of workhouses and The Famine again?

The Irish are not 'starting their regular emigration again'.

That's a crock. I have loads of friends in Ireland, they're going nowhere, because DUH! where is there to go?

Can't go to the US and Canada anymore - very hard to get visas to work there.

Much of the rest of the EU is in the toilet just as much.

Get friggin' real with that 'On Yer Bike' crap.

It's just a euphemism for giving people whose government bends them over and screws them a two-fingered salute.

Well, welcome to the 21st century, because this time, they're going to give one right back.

The reason the house prices are cheaper in some areas is because there are no jobs there,thats not hard to figure out surely

I would have more sympathy had I not seen on google earth how many council house families have swimming pools in our area - DH and I both work and can't afford one.

Benefits should pay for essentials and be there to support families when things go wrong. They should be a temporary measure, not a lifestyle choice!

Rant over.

hahahahaha @ council houses with swimming pools ..I've only got a hot tub, I feel cheated

Who on Earth would have a swimming pool in their backyard in this country?

Irish emigration restarts in 2010 news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8616434.stm

Some people live in places where houses cost £15k and commute to the SE where you can live on some outer London camp sites in the week and then go back home at weekends. It is not impossible to move if you're very poor.

Oh good, we've found a new contender for the plasma TV

Lets all go and live in tents then

Oh, yes, Xenia, that article is full of some grand stats about how they're fleeing in droves. NOT.

One chap saying he has 'an offer' in the US. Doing what? Got that work visa processesed already? LOL. Good luck! You'll need it! And about $5000, too!

Just like the Roma, eh, theusual? That way maybe the government can deport us, too.

(It's taken me about an hour to post this. Bloody phone)
65000 last year, 120000 predicted this year www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2010/10/04/irish-emigration-a-lesson-in-language-barriers-in-the-eu/

That's getting on for 3% of the population.

my council house

Pfft, you have an outdoor swimming pool? This ios my council house

I dunno whether Tori27 was on a wind up or not ...but I'm still laughing now

But swimming pools are as cheap as plasmas www.uksportimports.com/catalog/swimming-pools/splashstar-18ft-x-48in-steel-frame-pool-set-with-filter-pump !!!1!1!!1!!

Sorry I didn't read all 14 pages before making this post, I have no problem whatsoever with this benefit cap as it has been laid out. And I'm sure I'll be accused of benefit bashing but I really don't care! My husband and I are expecting our first 2 children early next year and as he is a higher rate tax payer (just) will not qualify for CB when that comes into effect. To be honest, really not too bothered by this.

I think that the benefit system plays an important role in society and must be kept but it needs to be a sensible system which it isn't at the moment!

What does really grip me is people who do choose benefits as a lifestyle choice - do not tell me it doesn't happen as I know several people who do it!

My suggestion would be that for all those claiming JSA only pay it for actual work done - for example, you want your money every week then you need to do this community task - be it litter picking or road sweeping etc. I'm quite sure that many would feel this beneath them and would put more 'effort' into finding a job!!!

Just don't get me started on the real scroungers who do private work and don't declare it!!!

Right, come on then!!!

I've found the solution to all this! It begins with standardised/identical housing for all. All homes will then be interchangeable so you can move where the work is or where the HB is lowest.

Since I thought of it I want to be the one to show Xenia her new home. It will be like a council house, but without the swimming pools they have on Tori's planet.

and what do you suggest happens to the people who do those jobs for wages do ?