April 1st. Local Housing Allowance. Changes.

[LolaGraham]

I haven't thought about what to type but I just want to put it out there that there are really vulnerable people affected by this gravely and disproportionatly. My daughter is very happy we have had it unbearably hard and delt with many unlucky circumstances to finally find happiness, her school that she is enrolled to join is just 'there', my university is also 'right there', my friends and family whom I depend upon are within reach BUT now due to this government we are being kicked right out in the name of the new LHA rates. The choice to go elsewhere is there however the choice to go elsewhere also has a lower than average rate which is unrealistic and rediculous, there will nolonger be anywhere to rent whilst youre on housing benefit.

It is my biggest ambition and dream to be a GP, at the moment the qualifications I have will just about get me a job in retail which cannot look after my daughter and I. I have nothing which is why I depend on college and university to give me a working life.

Am I a bad person for being single, low earner on benefits?
Should I feel disgusted in myself that my ex walked out when I was pregnant?
Does the word welfare mean you're less of a person.

I live in Camden, North London and for anyone who is nearby I would love to hear from you IF you are also affected. Also for those who dont quite understand the impact OR those who are viciously ignorant to the genuine people in need, this link is a written message to Parliamant by Camden council. Id really appreciate if you read. Maybe then all will understand why I and others have been holding our little ones tight and crying wondering what is going to happen to our little roof over our heads.

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmworpen/memo/hb/hb71.htm

Is there anyone out there with an answer? If not, thank you for reading.

a desperately scared single mum :(
x

I completely agree with swallowed, who put it all so much better.

I rarely find myself on this side of the fence, too.

Island lady- presumably your DS pays top rate tax,because he is assessed at that level according to what he is now earning, your initial outlay of tools where a wise investment(my son and i had to pay for his driving lessons and vehicle too, that's the norm)

We do not know the level of education the op is currently at,it is my understanding that she hasn't yet started the GP course, but is working towards that, but the crux of the matter is she will now have to give up her education and the idea of 'bettering' herself to work at a low paid job because of these caps.. which are everywhere, not just in her borough..

Expat-You said 'why should one person work at what they can and not get qualifications, but fund another person to get very good qualifications'..presumably that one person could get qualifications too if they wanted,just as the OP is trying to do..

Swallowedafly- Where did you get the 'only children of wealthy parents can afford to do their degree in London, with a flat in Camden paid for and 12k a year living expenses, from? If the OP gets £100 a week that's £5200 a year living expenses,and with a dependent,am pretty sure that wouldn't be far off a grant/loan amount per year for a London based Uni/College.

Regardless of all these additional points being made, the OP cannot afford to stay where she is now- near to her DDs school,her support network i.e friends and family and university.She will also have trouble renting elsewhere on HB, and can no longer continue her education.. I for one think that is a shitty position to be in.

'presumably that one person could get qualifications too if they wanted,just as the OP is trying to do..'

Yep, but they'll need to foot the bill for all their living expeneses whilst doing it.

So why not the OP?

What swallowed said, too.

Having been the homelessness process because landlord was coming back to live in their home, I know it's hard.

But this is not the case for the OP. She needs to make up the shortfall in her rent OR by not doing that, get evicted by the landlord AND be found involuntarily homeless by the council.

If it were me, being as articulate as she is, you can better believe I'd first try to get working so I could make up the shortfall.

She states that she has family and friends around for support. I'd be using that to the max rather than complaining about something that's a) a done deal b) let's face it, not bound to attract a lot of sympathy, particularly from people who schlep in from all over the place to work for min wage or low wage in London.

But jellycat your point was

If a person receives a loan via tax payers' money, to go to uni for 2 years to get better qualifications, they will get a better paid job,and put more tax back into the system

My point is that my DS hads to earn enough to pay the high rate of tax therefore putting more money into the system.

sorry manages not hads - brain going

swallowed - Where on earth are you getting your figures from?You're calculating 10k in Ctc ..Noone gets full grant/loan and CTC and HB and CTB and living expenses all at the same time...

Where does it say OP is asking for nigh on £27k per annum? She just wants to be able to pay her rent and continue her study in the place she lives and has support.

I know lone parents that are at uni's getting degree qualifications with grants and loans, don't think they needed to talk to Father Christmas in order to do so actually..Luckily their friends and family aren't in expensive London though.

Unfortunately OP seems to have disappeared, i'm not surprised,she was feeling frightened at the beginning,and wanted some support.
It is bloody hard juggling everything as a lone parent we all know that,fair play to her for having the energy left for ambitions.I bloody haven't anymore..

Islandlady - Good for him! Hopefully my DS2 will too,once he's finished his degree course..

CTC at basic single mum level on income support is £52p/w, student loans only work for BA's, after that it is a career development loan (max 8k charged at 18 percent interest and you can only have 3 extensions of around 1 year total) her HB probably gets paid direct to the Landlord and she probably gets CB and IS of £65pw then childcare? In London?! While studying one of the most intensive courses going?

Also unless she works 16 hours (unfeasible when doing medicine) p/w she will probably not get her working tax credit / and anyway it will only pay 80% of nursery fees - less retainers for place / meals / extras etc.

How do you expect her to pay the commute? The extra childcare?

I was a student in London four years ago and the system was pretty generous as it was never expected that I'd be able to work whilst studying. I was entitled to a full grant with additional allowances for being a lone parent, student loan, some housing benefit during term and full IS & HB during the holidays. I was quite lucky as my parents live in London so I didn't need to pay for childcare, but the university learning fund mentioned that they'd be able to cover some of that if necessary. The HB covered all of my rent as well.

I always got discretionary payments from the university's fund each year, as lone parents were top priority, plus I got extra bursaries as I'd got straight As in my A levels. I was very pro-active and sought additional funding to cover my travel from charities - it involved hours of trawling through the Grants Directory and lots of begging letters, but there were many charity trustees happy to award grants to me.

The logic behind all the support was that I would be able to pay back into the system once I'd graduated. Life hasn't turned out like that yet though - I haven't repaid any of my loan as I met DP and I'm raising more children .

'How do you expect her to pay the commute? The extra childcare?'

How do others do it? And why is she more special than anyone else and so deserving of more than anyone else? Other people have to put things on hold, change their plans, wait a bit, take whatever work they can get for now. Are they less deserving of achieving their ambitions because they're not lone parents?

This sense of entitlement really does not endear oneself to the populous on the whole or the government and that's why there are reactionary policies like this.

Anyhow, it's all spraff because as pointed out as a student you only get benefits during holiday time no matter what.

SaF - this is one of those areas of which you speak.

I was looking at the predicted rates for April for a 3 bedroom house in my area last night. Thankfully (!) it will just cover my rent. However, there are going to be a LOT of people that find themselves having to make up a shortfall of anything from £5 to £100+ a month. I don't live in a big flashy house (well it's very nicely decorated - but that's because the LL has good taste and it's his "home" rather than a BTL) and I nearly whooped with joy when I found a habitable property well within the (existing) LHA rates as they really are as rare of hens teeth round here as it is.

The new predicted rate will mean only a tiny fraction of homes in our entire town will require "topping up" out of other benefits (or other extra income).

Even downsizing to a 2 bedroom and cramming in won't really be an option for many either we don't have a plethora of 2 bedroom properties (and most of the 2 bedroom ones are over the 3 bedroom LHA rate).

Sadly the work situation round here (And childcare - especially with the local council saying that with their 100 proposed job cuts they "can't guarantee" the safety of childcare/holiday scehemes!) isn't great at the best of times.

These changes are going to hit the very people that can't afford them the hardest.

We're in a lwoer rent area but teh LHA is proportioantely lower too; we get aprtial HB (nboth students, Dh funded me not, I am a carer, DH PT self employed and I do 1 hour of self employed work a week on top of the boy's disabilities which eat my time and energy).

I don;t know if we will ahve a home after the lease expires, we will just have to see but it is scary; even hb landlords won;t touch self employed students!

Lola I hopw you get sorted.

yes the LHA is pretty low here too (as are rents) - but they're lowering the LHA rate - yet the rents don't seem to have fallen (just found the house I moved to 2 years ago back on the rental market - for the exact same price I was paying 2 years ago)

so basically the "it'll only affect people currently getting LHA of £400 a week or more" was a total fabrication. As I can assure you the LHA for this area is no-where near £400 a week - in fact I can't find any houses in our town at all that would cost that much to rent - let alone get LHA for).

And they're reducing the current rates for all properties sizes (except) 1 bedroom by anything from £8 up to £22 a week.

They "claim" that currently 5 in 10 properties in my area are affordable to those receiving LHA - which is absolute nonsense no way where 1/2 of the houses affordable when I looked last year, or now, or 2yrs ago, or 4yrs ago (that sounds terrible - I'm not in the genral habit of moving ). And even more nonsense is that the new rates will mean that 3 in 10 will be affordable

Swallowedafly and bridgesburnt

No it is not what I am saying. And your maths / assumptions are flawed.

She is talking about doing medicine - that's not just a BA which you do get help with, and cheap rate student loans (I don't know the figures as I haven't done this) but thats 7 years most of them at hardcore study at PG / DOCTORATE LEVEL and very competitive to get into / funding is also much more difficult to get.

I spent months applying for charitable funding for my MA in London which I graduated from last year. A lot of the charities do not fund PG study and many have gone down in the recession, I have had to apply recently for charitable funding as a single mum and many of the funding that was there isn't.

I was 'lucky' I got several grants (due to my disability). Which almost paid my £7,600 course fees. Remember she is studying MEDICINE and fees are ANNUAL. And do not include Books or equipment.

I could not afford to live in London (where the course I did is recognised in the industry I want to work in as being the best of it's kind with the most employment prospects) and apart from being totally exhausting my transport cost around £1000 p/m(!) for a daily journey of around 5 hours total. (It would still have cost over £800 if I were able-bodied.)

I could never have done this as a single mum, I have had to go severely into debt to do it and I would not have been lent the money as a single mum with no job (I worked 16h p/w during my course because I had to and it was only for a year, (the course was only available over 1 year). I would not recommend this route to anyone, and would be concerned if someone was as tired as I was for as longer than a year (I was a gibbering wreck by the end) studying something as important and life or death as medicine, the CDL also considers your partner's income).

8K loans is for whole course not p/a. It is also treated like a commercial loan and the amount you get depends on what repayments you can afford, so take the loans out of your calculation. ANYONE at uni on a post grad course / retraining is entitled to these LOANS which MUST BE REPAYED WITH INTEREST OF 18 PERCENT - THESE ARE NOT A BENEFIT and should NOT be in your calculations.

I have also left HB out because it's probably paid direct to ll.

£52 over 52 weeks = £5200 (approx) not 6k
£65 over 52 weeks = £3380
£20.3 over 52 weeks (CB)=£1055.6
Total pa £9635

She also may be able to get an access to learning grant of between £100 and £3,500 but these are over subscribed and getting cut. It is highly unlikely she would get the full whack or more than once.

Assuming she does all the childcare herself / if her kid is over 3 she puts it in pre-school for minimum hours p/w. If her kid is under 3 (and she says it is a toddler) she WILL LIKELY HAVE TO PAY EXPENSIVE LONDON CHILDCARE OUT OF THIS. I had to pay extra for out of hours childcare (not provided / provided on a private basis at top whack prices by recognised nursery / childminders. WTC / CTC wont pay this.

So the 'crazy expectation' is actually that she would be able to do this on under £10K per year and pay transport and childcare costs.

However, swallowedafly you are correct about one thing; the reality is that unless a backtrack on the tution fees hike / cuts in funding to unis happens fast / you win the lottery, your son will probably not be able to go to uni. And British degrees will be worthless anyway. So he will be better off training to be a plumber as all the best jobs will be taken by well-off kids and europeans with good degrees who manage to have fully subsidized education systems. If you are happy with that being "just the way it is" then fine. Personally I, like OP want a brighter future for myself /my DD.

P.S. Scotland students, of course, do not have to pay tuition fees

www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/12/09143204

"yes it is highly unlikely she'd get what she was expecting - it is in fact impossible to get that much as we don't pay students housing costs for anyone."

If she has a child under 5 and is claiming HB as a single Mum (instead of as a student), which she is fully entitled to do then she might. And the fact that she has talked about already living in the situation leads me to believe this. Which makes her very proactive.

"she never even knew that so we can assume a) she isn't and hasn't studied and b) she has done no research or made any moves towards making that happen. a very different fish to yourself."

No I don't think you can't assume either of these things. You have to rely on what she has actually said and the facts.

She could just be a full-time parent living on benefits until her DC is 5 instead of talking about graduating at 40. (Which will be made harder and more expensive for her by not being able to access her family / established childcare networks.)

"i think you are misreading the op and me and transposing your situation onto it which is entirely different."

No, I am attempting to use a real case study (in this case my own) with some real figures which I have researched in order to help you to understand what she is so stressed about.