Calls for Help Freeing Up Family Homes

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Free Up Family Homes The charity 'The Intergenerational Foundation' is recommending tax breaks to encourage older people to leave oversized homes. They estimate that there are 25 million unused bedrooms in England. Half of over 65's have 2 or more spare rooms in their home. Housing minister Grant Shapps doesn't sound keen on the idea. But what do you think? Should home-owners and tenants be encouraged to trade down for public-spirited reasons? Or should they be able to rattle around in their multiple spare bedrooms and left alone?

Checked government website no mention for extra allowance if disabled or MH issues etc. I hope the disability living/care allowance allow for the recprient to afford appropriate housing.

peachy, your BIL is an utter arse.

Take one day at a time, you are doing a fab job.

Sorry cross post

iGGLY THEY WILL END SOON, pip IS A NEED FOCUSSED BENFIT WITH A LOT LESS FLEXIBILITY AND ASSESSED ON MORE SET ITEMS- EG AN ADAPTED CAR, A CARER ETC.

Sorry caps.

MC I don;t think I am any more, not since ds4 was picked up, it's too much.

They need to strongly alter and rethink criteria if merely IQ, physical needs and sleeping ability are factors when assssing if someone can live in shared housing.

Please ignore your BIL Peachy. Hope fully someone will sort it all out for the better when they are older .

DLA is awarded at higher rate on a number of factors but the pivotal one is sleep: ds1 gets HR becuase of his aggression, fairly, at 11 he attends a specialist school and still ahs enver so much as walked to a post box alone; LT though I expect him to work (indeed he has a career aim and a huge talent- he wants to be a jewellery designer: you know, fancy lining things up!).

DS3 will always be dependent though and gets MR, the money isn't the worry but it just seems odd IYKWIM? When it's seen as the benefit that signifies all other areas of need.

Peachy my BIL has severe autism and is in really lovely accommodation (with carers) through an autistic charity. So it may work out. Do you get any emotional help?

Not really, am classed as coping well. usually I am, in fact.

DS3 isn;t classed as severe becuase of his IQ; his main difficulties are verbally (very unclear speech, part caused by a fall at school that split his mouth- they amde him eat lunch without it being cleaned before theyc alled us: needed 12 stitches including internal ones, you will understand why I am funny about trusting anyone to care for him now). his other big issue is attention: I can see the stairs froim here but if I asked him to go up them and get something he'd have forgotten by stair 3. At school his work is OK (for Base standards) but only with intensive 1-1 to keep him on track.

he's a coplex little man! Not at all reserved or withdrawn unles in absence: think over friendly exvcitable cuddly little three year old but as an eight year old, could get all sorts of problems

You're looking out for them and that will be the most important thing. If you have not already done so do approach autistic charities in your area they are great for advice and really helped out my family.

We had a befriender from the NAS but she was a student and went back, we've never amde it to the top of the list again: ds1 being violent doesn't help!

But tonight I am tiredf and being silly.

That's awful Peachy. Some parents have been able to set up their own residential units although they tend to be those with businesses and funds to address the long term care issues,

I am setting up a different form of related business; what I am finding is that
contacts ar everything: i met a teacher there for example from a school i'd never heard of, ds1 now has one of only 2 palces and has gone from bottom set everything to middle or top set and is Base Rep on the Comp council. I hope that those smae contacts long term give me some chance of securing tehm some future but if the services do not exist, and ATM they do not, there is little I can do. I know it soudns awfl and I hope I play my aprt helping those whoa re affected by teh rules but I I am just praying really that by the time 8 year old ds3 gets to 18 the system will ahve collpased and started to be rebuilt again: I get that there were problems before, affordability ebing one, but the solution does not involve abandoning those who need help based on a definition everyone knows is inappropriate. Franly it seems silly that children who have needed SN education provision then are abandoned on the basis of a ticked box.

The business model I am looking at uses a paired down mofdel of mentoring (used to work for mentoring charity) to suppoet famillies around dx time, I do know that being 'in the field' is the boy's best hope really. Of course DH's business is growing and who knows where that will end but I prefer to have various options rather than one for something so important: and resi care costs thousands of pounds a month- with 2 already diagnosed and ds4 beinga ssessed that would take a seriously well off person to fund for potentially fifty years for each child.

Residential woudn't even happen here due to where we live- even supermarkets can't get planning permission! We live close to a major venue (think Ryder Cup) and the council are on +++ alert at the venue's development plans which ahs triggered a clamp down. There's already also a major ASD charity unit within 10 feet of my front door but ds's don't meet their criteria.

I certainly think most of the problems must come post 18 even if ages 1 - 18 seem pretty hard for parents in this situation.

Different set of problems of course

Biggest problem ever for many is coming to terms with the dx, sorting schooling (often involves a tribunal and not everyone who gets the dx has fighter or even informed parents) and funding; post adolescence some kids thrive (as with all SN- this chap is a friend of ours who is thriving in a way Xenia would appreciate!) and some go under totally with the added responsibility / calls upon them. To a large extent with higher functioning people it is hard to predict as the thing that often causes people to struggle is MH problems, something common in ASD people but impossible to accurately predict in advance. MH is very much the cinderella health branch and accessing support from that is ahrd enough- prohibitively so if you ahve addiotnal needs, not just because of teh shortages and accessibility issues but becuase in some areas there simply are no people who are able to work effectively with people with LD / ASD / etc who have MH needs. Or as the CAMHs lady said to me when ds1 was being treated for eating disorders 'I don't really know what asperger's in, can you explain it?'

I know older people who have had to wait a long time for a suitable property to come up that they can downsize into. Most don't want to go through the hassle of a move to a property that will not suit their needs once their mobility becomes poor. So they would turn down a flat in small blocks with lots of stairs. And many want a small garden.

Where I live there is a desperate shortage of suitable properties to downsize into. Which is one reason older home owners often continue to live in larger properties.

haven't read through all of this...but there seems no mention of younger people living alone in large houses. Why should one of my neighbours be encouraged to move because they are old and living alone in a 4 bed house and the other allowed to stay because they are younger? why not ban single people from buying homes with more than 2 bedrooms - not a policy i would support, but a more practical one

In most areas where I've lived its not actually supply thats the problem its the cost. So are old people expected to sell at a price only slightly higher than small houses or is the government supposed to fork out the price difference to make it affordable to young families?

old people often find bungalows more practical. should we ban young families from moving into these? this all sounds a bit like living in a communist state to me or a dictatorship..not an environment i'd like to live in

Dreamingofsun no one is thinking of banning anyone from anything. Actually the only thing that is being mentioned is a tax break for one of the wealthier groups in society .

As for the ban, you touched on that yourself. There is an inadvertant ban on young people trying to get a family home ......it's called cost.