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Housing Benefit Is Costing 21 Billion?!

StykerStyker Posts: 49,872
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Just heard Faisal Islam report that on Channel 4 News. It used to be 12 Billion a few years ago, which was way too high, and now its 21 Billion?

If ever there was proof that the housing policies of most people and the government was haywire this is it! People trying to make a killing out of property, caused two massive recessions in the last 20 years and now becasue people can't afford the crazy rents and mortgages, we all have to pay 21 Billion in Benefit?!!!!

BUILD THE COUNCIL HOMES AGAIN POLITICIANS!!!!! :mad:
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    Pisces CloudPisces Cloud Posts: 30,239
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    No, selling off council homes really wasn't the greatest of ideas.
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    StykerStyker Posts: 49,872
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    No, selling off council homes really wasn't the greatest of ideas.

    80% or more have been sold, nothing we can do about that now. We have to bring back Council Housing, and cameron better back off from wanting to sell Housing Association homes. That was his policy in the years before the election.

    The Lib Dems don't seem to have goton the Tories to agree to do anything on the housing, major mistake Lib Dems. If that 10 thousand tax free policy doesn't come in fast, the Lib Dems are finnished and Labour will sweep up on their votes.
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    monkeydave68monkeydave68 Posts: 2,421
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    No, selling off council homes really wasn't the greatest of ideas.

    having an open door policy for imigrants wasnt a great idea either.
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    HypnodiscHypnodisc Posts: 22,728
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    I would like to dispel a myth that housing benefit will always just pay up for anything blindly.

    My rent is £500 a month, but housing benefit will only contribute £300 a month towards it, so I have to make up the short-fall with my Disability Living Allowance. The allowances here are pretty damn low.

    Which seems quite unbalanced when in other areas and different councils (mainly Central London Boroughs), authorisation has been given to pay vast amounts of rent on very expensive properties!

    So it's not the same everywhere and isn't necessarily a national problem - some areas will be paying eye-watering amounts compared to others
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    SandgrownunSandgrownun Posts: 5,024
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    I do agree there we need more social housing but I don't see how that would reduce the Housing Benefit bill. People in council houses still claim HB and HB is a set amount regardless of how much a private landlord charges - if your actual rent is more than than your HB then you make up the shortfall yourself.
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    DavidTDavidT Posts: 20,285
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    Styker wrote: »
    Just heard Faisal Islam report that on Channel 4 News. It used to be 12 Billion a few years ago, which was way too high, and now its 21 Billion?

    If ever there was proof that the housing policies of most people and the government was haywire this is it! People trying to make a killing out of property, caused two massive recessions in the last 20 years and now becasue people can't afford the crazy rents and mortgages, we all have to pay 21 Billion in Benefit?!!!!

    BUILD THE COUNCIL HOMES AGAIN POLITICIANS!!!!! :mad:

    Well it must be one of the main reasons its so difficult to get people back to work. I know someone who's just got a one bed flat above some shops that is costing not far short of £600 per month. That's basic rent only. This in my area that is the second lowest paid in the UK. In other words loads of people on minimum wage.

    How on earth do you sort that out?
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    Reiver97Reiver97 Posts: 2,491
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    having an open door policy for imigrants wasnt a great idea either.


    What has that got to do with this?

    Non-EU immigrants are not eligible for housing benefit or indeed any other state benefit.

    But never let the facts get in the way of a bit of immigrant bashing hey? Recession? Banking crisis? Budget deficits? Blame it on the darkies. :rolleyes:
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    mad_dudemad_dude Posts: 10,670
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    Regulated rents need to be reintroduced
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    klytamnestraklytamnestra Posts: 1,398
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    Hypnodisc wrote: »
    I would like to dispel a myth that housing benefit will always just pay up for anything blindly.

    My rent is £500 a month, but housing benefit will only contribute £300 a month towards it, so I have to make up the short-fall with my Disability Living Allowance. The allowances here are pretty damn low.

    Which seems quite unbalanced when in other areas and different councils (mainly Central London Boroughs), authorisation has been given to pay vast amounts of rent on very expensive properties!

    So it's not the same everywhere and isn't necessarily a national problem - some areas will be paying eye-watering amounts compared to others

    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:
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    mad_dudemad_dude Posts: 10,670
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    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:

    Im more concerned the amount that the state gives to landlords who do not need the money to survive than to someone claiming DLA

    Perhaps you would like to offer Hypnodisk some employement that would renumerate him sufficently to not have to claim DLA.
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    Reiver97Reiver97 Posts: 2,491
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    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:

    Okay. Heres a little challange for you. Go on benefits. Go on, if it is so cushy for those people, if they are so much better off than you, just do it. Makes sense doesnt it? You dont have to be idle, you can work in the voluntary sector so you dont feel like a scrounger. Go on, give it a try for 6 months then come back and tell us how much better off you are.
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    Pisces CloudPisces Cloud Posts: 30,239
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    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:
    You would prefer a big increase in crime, street begging, homelessness or shanty towns then?
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    Beth HartBeth Hart Posts: 6,183
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    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:
    Did you see the bit about Disability Living Allowance and recognise the significance of that?
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    paralaxparalax Posts: 12,127
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    The reason housing benefit is so high is the amount of people getting the benefit, the growing army of teenagers breeding like rabbits and being supported by the taxpayer is the reason, if you build more council houses that is who will be getting them first, what an incentive.

    The ridiculous state of affairs which the last government allowed means people can go off and rent private houses at high rents, they don't have to get houses with low rents.
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    bhoy07bhoy07 Posts: 25,036
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    If you think £21billion is high wait until Council Tax is frozen and the local councils make up the difference by putting rent up much higher than inflation.
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    StykerStyker Posts: 49,872
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    DavidT wrote: »
    Well it must be one of the main reasons its so difficult to get people back to work. I know someone who's just got a one bed flat above some shops that is costing not far short of £600 per month. That's basic rent only. This in my area that is the second lowest paid in the UK. In other words loads of people on minimum wage.

    How on earth do you sort that out?

    You didn't actually say how much your friend is earning but if your friend had a council one bed flat or bedsit, chances are the rent would be less than £300 a month, just and maybe qualify for tax credits too, the single working persons one.

    The fact that your friends rent is £600 a month is directly as a result/fallout of the right to buy and the stoppin gof council homes being built in 1987. Those 2 measures are what drove up house preices and it was almsot certainly intended to do so. Take away the supply of anything and the demand and price goes up and thats what Thatcher did and labour the fools didn't have the guts to reverse it and they seem to have agreed with it once in gov! I'm allright jack etc.

    Ex Labour gov ministers seem to be very happy in oposition too at the mo except for Ed Balls but he strikes me as power hungry.
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    StykerStyker Posts: 49,872
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    paralax wrote: »
    The reason housing benefit is so high is the amount of people getting the benefit, the growing army of teenagers breeding like rabbits and being supported by the taxpayer is the reason, if you build more council houses that is who will be getting them first, what an incentive.

    The ridiculous state of affairs which the last government allowed means people can go off and rent private houses at high rents, they don't have to get houses with low rents.

    Not exactly, in my area, the council for about 8 years, after complaints stopped prioritising single mothers with one baby for housing, had to have at least 2 kids before maybe getting something. If the rules where changed that its about how long you've been waiting and think about that before expecting to be housed just because you have a baby.

    many young people housed over the last 20 years because they had a baby could have stayed with their parents as they where often the youngest in their family but because the policies allowed them to be housed for having a baby they took advantage.

    Ultimately we need to build enough homes that no one has to wait more than 5 years after joining. In tiny Kuwait, the government their either gives you a house at 21, or they build you one!

    We've built about 25 million homes on just 12% of the land in the UK, we can easily build thehomes needed and only take about 1% more in land use leaving only 87% in "precious countryside" that most people go on about.
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    klytamnestraklytamnestra Posts: 1,398
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    Beth Hart wrote: »
    Did you see the bit about Disability Living Allowance and recognise the significance of that?

    The new ESA test is proving what many of us already knew - the vast majority of those claiming they are too sick to work can do some kind of work. Even Stephen Hawking works, so lets not get misty eyed about the bad back and social anxiety brigade!
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    mad_dudemad_dude Posts: 10,670
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    The new ESA test is proving what many of us already knew - the vast majority of those claiming they are too sick to work can do some kind of work. Even Stephen Hawking works, so lets not get misty eyed about the bad back and social anxiety brigade!

    Do you include terminal cancer patients in with that generalisation

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1280414

    Im sure if stephen hawking didnt have a degree he would have found it incredibally easy to get a job with his condition:rolleyes:
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    bossoftheworldbossoftheworld Posts: 4,941
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    The new ESA test is proving what many of us already knew - the vast majority of those claiming they are too sick to work can do some kind of work. Even Stephen Hawking works, so lets not get misty eyed about the bad back and social anxiety brigade!


    Stephen Hawkings is a genius not everyone can get a job like that.

    I know a couple of disabled people who basically couldn't get anything at all. Personally I think using Stephen Hawking is a bad example, but that's just my opinion.

    There are plenty of genuine people on DLA and of course there will be ones that abuse the system. Doesn't mean that the OP is though.
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    Pisces CloudPisces Cloud Posts: 30,239
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    The new ESA test is proving what many of us already knew - the vast majority of those claiming they are too sick to work can do some kind of work. Even Stephen Hawking works, so lets not get misty eyed about the bad back and social anxiety brigade!

    The tricky part is actually finding the jobs to suit their needs and we all know how easy jobs are to get at the moment for healthy people. :rolleyes: So what do they live on in the meantime?
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    well2dowell2do Posts: 3,496
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    Reiver97 wrote: »
    What has that got to do with this?

    Non-EU immigrants are not eligible for housing benefit or indeed any other state benefit.

    But never let the facts get in the way of a bit of immigrant bashing hey? Recession? Banking crisis? Budget deficits? Blame it on the darkies. :rolleyes:

    That's a tad racist to suggest non EU immigrants are 'darkies'.
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    HypnodiscHypnodisc Posts: 22,728
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    Bloody hell I wish the state would give me £300 towards my mortgage. Think yourself lucky you get such a generous payment for doing nothing. Makes me so mad, :mad:

    /Facepalm
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,270
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    The new ESA test is proving what many of us already knew - the vast majority of those claiming they are too sick to work can do some kind of work. Even Stephen Hawking works, so lets not get misty eyed about the bad back and social anxiety brigade!

    While I agree in principle, it's not that easy to find the very specific jobs that people might actually be capable of doing.

    I also don't like the dig at mental illness as though it's somehow less of a disability.
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    lemoncurdlemoncurd Posts: 57,778
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    Well, if they scrapped housing benefit, that's £21bn off the deficit in one easy shot! You should be in the treasury, Stryker!
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