COULD YOU LIVE ON £7 .50 A DAY

[corydoras]

Now HB is going to be paid to the recipient and not directly to the landlord I see many landlords refusing to rent to people on HB.

There are many who won't let to people that are on HB as it is.

[nick]

Indeed - and in some places, because of the willingness of the state to pay them. I hope that the cap on housing benefit will force rents in those places back to levels that individuals can afford to pay. But they are what they are, and the function of state owned housing is to provide subsidised options for people who can't afford the market rates. I have no problem with that.

 

Steve, it is clear that you are arguing from principle rather than any sort of knowledge of social housing in the UK. Nothing wrong with that, do it many times myself.

 

Couple of facts that rather get in the way of your assertion that the cap on housing benefits will force rents...

 

There is no cap on HB per se. The only cap there is is the £26k limit to benefits dependent people.

 

Anyone that is in work and in receipt of Local Housing Allowance (or HB) is not subject to any limit. They can still claim the maximum available under the rules.

 

This government do not want to upset their core vote, and the calculation under this and previous tory governments is that anyone that owns their own home is more likely to be blue than red.

 

So social tenants are blamed for the hike in Housing benefit when in reality it is Local Housing Allowance that has driven the budget through the roof.

 

Again, social housing is NOT subsidised, your assertion based on semantics does not make it true.

[nick]

If you want the debate to make any sense you guys have got to recognize that there are two different benefits.

 

Housing Benefits is paid to any tenant of social housing that is entitled to it.

 

Local Housing Allowance is payable to private rental tenants.

 

The government don't differentiate because they wish to place the blame for the sky rocketing "housing benefit" budget on social tenants.

 

The simple fact is that LHA is what has caused the massive hike is "housing benefit" costs.

[corydoras]

Since Cory has his high horse out, here is another observation. In England there is this "stigma" about people living in Council Accommodation. Why is this?

 

When we moved into town from the farm we moved into a council flat. In the estate we lived in there was a broad mix of people living on the estate. My dad was a bus driver, my mum worked in a big haberdashery shop in town. If I looked out the back of the flat I could see the house where my mum's boss lived. She was married to a cop, not any ordinary cop, he was a DCI. If I looked out of the front window I could see the DCI's sons' house. He was a PC. Many of the teachers in our school lived on the estate. Nearly every street had a "police house". Guess what, we had very little problem with crime on that estate.

 

There was another two estates. They were not Council they were SSHA (a now defunct housing association). Nearly everyone that lived on the SSHA worked in the Faslane Navy base, or in the Esso Oil Terminal at Bowling.

[nursejudy]

The biggest drain on benefits in the country.

 

AOPs, yes OLD AGE PENSIONERS take the most in benefits.Far outweighing the other benefits, incapacity payment, dole, housing, DLA etc, thats chicken feed compared to the pensioners benefits.

er i object to this as at 63 am an OAP but do not retire till the end of the month,will admit i have received a £100 heating allowance but as my other half is 75 and quite disabled ...... do not feel too bad about that ,plus I will be fulltime carer ..... unpaid saving the country hundreds of pounds a week by giving his care myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

ps have not got around to getting bus pass yet and currently have no plans to do so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited April 3, 2013 by nursejudy

[Steve Walker]

Yes, it's true that those people receiving in-work benefits will not be subject to the cap. And it's an overall cap, but it will affect those ridiculously high rents in parts of London where housing benefit is a big chunk of the costs. The landlords in those cases will have to find different tenants or drop their prices, and I have no sympathy for them.

 

As for subsidy, we will have to agree to differ on the meaning of the word. The state owns some houses and rents them out for less than they are worth to people who can't afford the going rate. It gets a return on investment, but it's less than it would get at market rates and I suspect less than it would save in interest by selling them off and using the proceeds to reduce the deficit. The bottom line for me is really whether providing cheaper housing in this way is the most cost effective way of helping the people involved, I don't have any strong ideological belief that the state should or should not own houses.

[nick]

Judy I don't think that Andrew was having a go at you, or any other OAP (at least that is how I read it) Simply stating a fact that the largest part of the "Benefits Budget" that is so often talked about is that paid to pensioners.

Next largest slice is that paid out for in work benefits.

 

Then the segment being target remorselessly by Gideon

[Steve Walker]

Since Cory has his high horse out, here is another observation. In England there is this "stigma" about people living in Council Accommodation. Why is this?

 

According to my mother - who grew up in a council house - it didn't used to be that way. I would guess that it is down to the increase in the aspiration to home ownership leading to those who could opt out doing so and leaving council housing disproportionately occupied by those who could not.

[chesters1]

 

There are many who won't let to people that are on HB as it is.

I can verify that with experience, giving the money to the renter is like giving coke to a junkie you just know some will dip into it and default on their rent ,perhaps thats the method of getting more empty properties?

[Ken L]

It's strange that so many people still can't seperate the fact thet they, their releatives or their friends live or grew up in a council house from the question of whether the state (via it's organs of local government) should provide subsidised housing.

it will affect those ridiculously high rents in parts of London where housing benefit is a big chunk of the costs. The landlords in those cases will have to find different tenants or drop their prices

Of course, it will also push up the salaries of those people in low paid jobs until a new equelibrium is reached without HB.