General Chat

Morning :)

Not read all of this thread......but the Bedroom Tax is a disgrace.
Have any of you written to your mp's etc or contacted 38Degree's.....l'm about to check 38degree's website out!!

jude

Edit...some amazing points here, you could all tell em so much!!!

I think the government have taken enough away from the people that are on basic wages, benefit, ill, sick or disabled, Schools Hospitals police stations closing, Company’s going to the wall so jobs are very, very rare, Cost of living going up all the time etc. Now they want to take what little security you have at home, when will it all end? Maybe with the people coming together & saying enough is enough we hired you & we are fireing you if you don't start looking after the people you represent instead of robbing us all & giving our money to other countries.

Chicken and Egg comes to mind.

Older, single people or older couples are rattling around in 3 bed homes while families with dependent children are squashed in homes too small for their needs. In an ideal world, there ought to be smaller social housing properties available for the 1st mentioned categories to move into. But there aren’t enough.

Older people may not wish to move from their homes where they have lived for donkey’s years. How many of us have relatives who end up only using one living room and one bedroom? Probably many and that include those who own their homes. The ‘spare’ rooms are used as store rooms for the accumulation of clutter which will be given away/thrown out once the person has died.

It does seem unfair to be hitting those who are probably most in financial need. On the other hand, if the benefit is there, most people would take it if offered. Should something similar be rolled out to all households where the lease holders reach the age of say 60 whether they are on housing benefit or not?

A one year rolling lease is rather draconian and gives no feeling of security of tenure. Possibly 3 years?

It’s all very well saying that there should be a cap of £100 p.w. on HB in London (and probably other major towns/cities. The purchase price of even small properties is still astronomical. Our son bought a one up-one down house last year. His mortgage (with a sizeable deposit he had saved for since leaving school) is over £1000 per month. Buy-to-let mortgage interest rates are Loaded. A private landlord has to cover that with the rent, as well as put aside for repairs which they are responsible for, the same as housing associations for the properties they manage.

Perhaps the time has come for social housing to be let on a year to year basis like a lot of private housing. Then people would know that they would be asked to move on when the property became too big for their day to day needs.

I'm sorry if I appear unsympathetic but families need homes and many children are living in grossly overcrowded conditions while single people are living in 3 bedroomed homes. Until comparatively recently I thought that you had to move out when children left home.

A lot of people who own their homes downsize as kids leave home - why not in the public housing sector as well?

....cont

I pay nigh on £50 a month in mortgage repayment insurance should we fall on bad times at some point in the future..we've paid that AND MORE for many many years...council/renting tenants pay diddly squat........but got benefit if needed.....home owners get not a brass farthing despite the amount they paid in to protect their assets.....as it was we were at the mercy of our bank...well you can imagine !!!...so in some regards we ARE all in it together !!!

Well joy how lucky you are in your area :-)

Single people in 3 bed houses I can see the point of them being asked to down size, me in 2 bed flat with no 1 bed flats available to go live in B+B, what the hell do I do with my home furniture and personal items.

This Tax is as bad as the window Tax they had

First imposed in England in 1696, Window Tax was repealed in 1851 after campaigners argued that it was a 'tax on health', and a tax on 'light and air', as well as being an unequal tax with the greatest burden on the middle and lower classes.

Next they will be taxing sex, well that is one I won't have to pay
:-D :-D

I'm off to bed now, let me see do I sleep in my bedroom or my spare room which is now my dining room as living room is to small for a table

Good night x

Shame on you Ann, living on your own in a 3 bedroom house :-D. If you had a social conscience you would sell it to a large family (who probably couldnt afford it anyway) and buy yourself a small 1 bedroom flat in some distant part of the country.

I hope the NZ govt doesnt come up with the same idea as the pommy one, I also have a 3 bedroom house which I share with the cat, probably some rats, mice and fleas, and spiders. If anybody tries telling me I have to pay a big tax or move out you will hear my yells from over there. Big Brother beware. :-|

When , as home owners, we had to claim for 3 mths whilst OH was out of work we had a HELL of a time..not only with the usual c**p from the job centre but MASSIVE pressure from our Mortgage insurers ..who having taken shed loads of our money during the good times made damn sure things were as difficult as they could make it for us to keep our home that we have sunk our LIVES into paying for. Had we not owned we'd have been entitled to all sorts...as it was we were put under even more pressure...I have bent over backwards forwards and sideways to pay my mortgage for the past 18 yrs because I've never wanted to feel like my home wasn't my own...it IS the only way of ensuring that....now that's not casting aspersions on anyone who didn't do or couldn't do the same..it's just MY feeling....I wanted to OWN my home not be cast adrift by changes in rules etc which can always happen if you are at the mercy of landlords/council.

BUT it's been bloody hard tbh...i've had to work two jobs in the past to pay my mortgage when others who haven't had that responsibility appeared to have it easier during the bad times..honestly home owners ARE given a hard time when they fall on bad times..the banks make bloody sure of that !

Definitely 'Divide & Rule'
The Tory party have been 'slagging off' the 'Poor' (when they say the word it sounds like they're taling about aliens) since they came in, carefully avoiding their own (class) shortcomings.

Tax avoidance is a lot higher than the total payment in benefits - but Tax avoidance is somethng their 'class' do, so it's okay.
Benefit 'fraudsters' on the other hand - well if some are doing it, they all must be! Remedy: lower benefit for everyone.

Unemployed? You must be living the life of riley - lower the JSA,then give money to employers (those known to the government, I'll be bound) to give these people a useless 'job' for 6 months - then they can go back on JSA

Result? 'Favoured' employers get OUR money AND cheap labour and quite a few full time jobs are denied - because the employers are raking it in with their cheap labour. They won't want to employ anyone full time, as it will involve annual leave, pension etc.

Oh - and the poor are fat.

The children of the poor get free school meals, threfore they presume these are the children needing extra help at school. From personal experience, I know this to be untrue, but still the lie continues,

It's the teenage children of the poor who get drunk - carefully ignoring the fact that Blairs teenage son was found drunk in the gutter!!
To stop this unholy drinking by the 'Poor' they decide to up the price of alcohol for our own sake. In reality of course, they increase the tax. The wealthy are okay, they regularly go on 'booze cruises'.Tax free booze from France.

And now.....why should they (the 'poor') have more room than they need? They should inherit like we did, then they could have as many houses as we've got. If they're going to insist on being poor, they shouldn't have enough room to swing a cat - in fact they shouldn't have a cat.

I could go on......

Ann home owners dont get housing benefit
some may get help with mortages but thats different


and it wont affect your rates or council tax
so dont worry your safe :-D :-D

nobody will be forced to move
they will just have to pay the extra money

in our area the smaller properties will be decorated in nuetral colours
and carpeted right through before the person down sizes to help them with costs
this is good will on the part of the two housing associations in our area

phew - thanks :-) :-)

No Ann , your ok . It only affects peole under the age of 61.5 years that claim housing benefit

if you dont claim housing benefit i dont think your effected x

I'm off to my bed now . I don't often get involved in " debate " being a bit of a fence sitter in most situations but I do know what I feel on this issue and that , on the whole , it is WRONG !

Yes , there will always be " wrong uns " that cheat the system and look out for their own greedy ends but I feel tremendiouly sad for the people that are left holding the shit end of the stick :-( :-(

I'm not understanding this at all and first I've heard of it

I live in a three bedroomed house on my own - I own the house and have lived here for 43 years - am I affected? - sorry to be thick

yes they definitly need to build more social housing with less rooms to accomadate,

Without a doubt , there are people that could and ought to down size to smaller places but the points that are being made are that the councils do not have enough smaller places to offer the people that want to downsize .
Another thing that troubles me is that it is the middle aged people , whoes families have mostly grown up and moved on that are being pressurised . These same folk are the ones that probably look out for the older folk on their roads ( I know I do ) . If young busy families move in , who will take the time to go and change old Mrs ? light bulb or pass the time of day with her ? I can see even more community breakdown looming and I don't like it :-(

and as you didnt have a spare bedroom they would gladly pay the costs

good point stray
also i know men who say they have their kids and dont
move in with a girlfriend

and sub let the social housing they get
housing benifits for to somebody else privatly

the housing do NOT pay private rents in full! or in most cases i know they dont.

at the end of the day the money has to come from somewere, and why should a single person be in a 3 bedroom house while a family of 3/4 shar with there parents?

there is too many mostly men where i live, in 2 and 3 bedroom houses because they have there children on a weekend, who dont even see there kids, why should they live in a big house when familys need them?

i do feel sorry for people who have lived in house for 20 yrs etc, and are being made to move because the home there kids grew up in, is now just them, however, if it means so much pay the % needed,

most people pay more for there sky tv than they will for there extra room,