Poor forced from the city's centre!

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Am i alone in seeing if housing benefit is cut, and the poor are forced out of the cities, buy to let homes will go up for sale then the double dip recession (actually the third dip by my counting) will kill our housing market even more.

People act like only those who are out of work get housing benefit, and also that the poor or out of work don't deserve to have nice things and like like other human beings, getting really sick of it actually!

Rent cap for a 4-bed will be a maximum of £1200pcm. In my town the cap for a 4-bed is set right now at £900pcm. The cheapest 4-bed I can find in our whole town (that would mean DP cannot get to work on time as public transort would require 2 buses, that don't start early enough for him to get to work, and would therefore be unemloyed) are £1000pcm, requiring a top-up of at LEAST £100 a month even for those OUT of work. For those of us in work but on low incomes, they will only pay up to £450 of the rent. Leaving us with a top-up of £550 pcm out of a £16K income for DP's ft work.

Add to that that they are going to raise rents in HA/ Council properties to 80-90% of market rents. And then drop the cap from 50% of average rent to 30% of average rent. How the fuck are DP and I and our dc NOT going to end up in some scummy B&B 40 miles away from where we are now, leaving DP unemployed as he can't get to work? . There are so few LA properties in our area that 75% of HB claimants (in work or out) are in Private rented accommodation anyway.

The LA may 'have a duty to house' these people who have to leave their PR houses - but only in temporary accommodation like a B&B for anything from 2 yrs up to 5 yrs+. Would you want your DC being brought up for potentially the whole of their childhood in ONE ROOM despite their age/sex etc, just because your partner only earnt min wage and there wasn't a property available that he can get to work from that comes in under the cap when it all shakes out? I fucking think not.

This is all crap, and they don't give a shit about those of us working all the hours for a fucking pittance. Sure they would miss their hospital cleaners, care workers, shop workers, bin men etc.

byrel that is what people think, you are right. but don't you think that is, lets face it, a jelous, childish, envious kind of way of thinking?

i mean in those houses there could be a little family, where dad has been made redundant and couldnt afford the rent anymore and so goes on to HB. should his kids who are doing well, possibly about to do their GCSE's, be forced into moving far away? maybe, mum has part time work in the local school, it probably wouldnt pay if she had to pay for travel everyday from another place. say mum also looked after gran, cooked dinners, popped in everyday to make sure she is ok, say 2 streets away [in a bid to keep her in her own home as long as she could]. should Hb not be there?

it's just not as rosey as people think. their house may look a nice house, but their fridge maybe empty.

oh yes if it were just tax exiles - what about Vodaphone - George Osborne wrote off the £6 BILLION they owe the British state.. Now tell me who is ripping people off.

fsmail

Whats the point in talking about gross, I get £6.75 =11K is depending on Over Time, Minimum wage is £5.80 or it might be £5.93 now anyway thats got to be no more then 10k. can't afford anything on that.

My fiance gets 24k, he has no savings, 850pcm rent (1 bed flat), over priced bills, over priced Council tax at almost 200 a month, travel costs at £170 a month.

it's everything, everything has been allowed to get out of hand, no one in government stands up and thinks well hang on if someone getting paid this and rent is that, bills and travel are this at the mo etc etc, why do they think in such small terms and never look at the big picture.

Meanwhile we have a vat increase and travel increases again in Jan to go with the caps and changes to social housing rental structure, it's all just madness, it's all going to implode one day.

sorry - I don't do mobiles - it's Vodafone, isn't it (yeuck!)

Byrel - I don't work for a variety of reasons - 1) have a dc with sn that can't get childcare for (get no disability benefits for her though) 2) I have a fairly problematic disability myself that means I can't work more than PT at best (that I get no disability benefits for) 3) Cost of childcare would be a minimum of £52 a day - I can only EARN £46.80 a day! 4) I have caring responsibilities for DP's elderly parents (that I get no financial help with).

DP works FT. For our town (NOT london I might add, but SE, so people outside London WILL be affected by the cap) he is on a better wage than most, he gets £16K before tax, rather than the £11,400 before tax that a lot of people employed FT here are on! So most people on HB ARE working full time, just for shitty fucking wages that wouldn't even cover the rent never mind other bills and food!

'Ministers' claims that the housing benefit system has created "an expectation that you could live almost anywhere" have been undermined by a prominent piece of research for the Department for Work and Pensions which says there is no evidence to support the idea'.

there.

I don't see the problem with the cap. Why should someone on HB live in a nicer house than someone who isn't and who is paying the rent themselves.

Bruce Walker of the university's centre for urban and regional studies told the Guardian there was "no evidence, no strong or significant evidence" to back up ministers' claims. People on housing benefit "cannot live anywhere, because they receive a rent that is set at the median or half local market rates.

"They also don't receive the maximum amount because of deductions and there is evidence that landlords prefer not to have you if you are a housing benefit claimant. What was striking [from our work] was that 40% of low income working families actually paid more in rent than they would have received in housing benefit."

why would someone want worse for someone elses children in comparison to their own?

Is it a normal reaction for a parent to want the best for their children and for them to better in comparison with other children.

why would someone want worse for someone elses children in comparison to their own?

The biggest obstacle to that is usually the children's own parents. Ask any social worker.

Seems pretty daft to me to be jealous of the poor. Surely if you want to be jealous of someone, it'd be more logical to choose the rich? Especially that section of the rich who caused the economic crisis in the first place?

Well said Edam.

Plus the greedy landlords who pushed the rental prices up out ofthe rich of working people after the bankers ruined the housing market with stupid mortgages.

Why are landlords greedy, surely they are charging the market rate

This is not to do with the economic crisis this is due to the deficit, which was run up by the last labour gvt, to create a dependency of clients to gerrymander their votes.

The rents will be forced down, I am sure of it rather than people being moved out.

HOW can they be forced down if the Buy-to-let landlords are only charging just above what covers their mortgage? I can see that and I'm on the opposite side of the coin. Most BTL LL's here aren't doing it through choice, it's just that no-one can afford to buy the houses at the ridiculous cost of mortgages here, that are often 13X the 'normal' (for our town) annual income, so they are letting them out because no-one can buy them. The only people who can afford to buy here are commuters that work in London, people who work IN this town can't afford to buy as a managers wage in this town is c.£17K. Average 3-bed terrace to buy - £230K.

So rents can't come down because the LL's need to cover their costs. Yet people on the crap income (especially those working ft for peanuts) still need somewhere to LIVE. HB covers the difference. What of all the people working in this town that will be out of work if they move to where housing is cheaper? Who does their jobs then? If there's no PHYSICAL way of commuting if you can't afford to run a car?

The buy to let landlords have the properties repossessed when they aren't subsidised by the tax payer, that floods the market with cheaper properties which are snapped up by the forced renters which removes a lot of renters from the market, rents come down.
Happy days.

But what about in the meantime before the rents come down, or if the BTL LL's get a professional couple in to cover that rent out of a London workers' salary? Then rents don't come down.

Loudlass that is exactly what happened last time, it's why some people own property in London and yet appear to have quite low incomes they bought at the right time.
If landlords want property to be an investment then they have to accept there will be highs and lows and lots will be repossessed it's just the way it goes.
And what happens in the meantime ? People can't pay what they haven't got, you just continue paying the amount you can pay and the landlord either accepts the new rent or they try to get the tenant removed which is not easy if they are paying something towards the rent, it take's 6 months when they aren't paying a penny.

"Sylvia what would you have the Government do about tax exiles, if they don't live in the country then the Government can't do anything."

But Lord Ashcroft does and many people see tax evasion as the legitimate protection for those who can afford the best tax accountants.

We will never ever save money by addressing the welfare system in a vindictive way, only squander time and energy.
People who cannot work should have enough money to live a reasonable life. People who do work should pay their taxes and support those who dont.

I think that the cap is likely to see a reduction in rents Loudlass as the Government paying these high prices is helping sustain the market price. If HB is reduced so that HB claimants can't afford to stay in that house then there will be a reduction in the price as there is a reduction in demand.

People who do work should pay their taxes and support those who don't.

What if I don't want to work, I just don't fancy it any more, still happy to support me ?