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Housing benifit limit

I am not sure quite how this in all honesty relates to this forum except as how it may impact on us as businesses and possibly as recipients.

How have we arrived at a situation where people can receive more in housing benifit that an awful lot of people can earn by working fulltime? Even a reduction to £20800 a  year is still a fair wack of wonga.

Perhaps a more sensible approach would be to impose a cap on the amount of money that can be charged as rent say £1500 a month for a four bedroom house or ultimately will the capping of benifits have the same effect. If there is a lack of demand at the rent being asked going to force down prices, it would be an interesting experiment to find the answer if it wasn't putting peoples homes at risk. 

 

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  • It is madness to allow politicians to interfere in market forces all they do is create false markets which eventually turn sour.

    Just look at the mess that is the financial markets, this is a direct result of politicians getting involved in the mix and deregulating systems that worked well, so well that the financial industry did not like these regulatory systems, so they lobby the polticians who changed the rules.

    Of course benefits should be capped, of course they should be lower than paid employment, the alternative is complete and utter madness – yes it can be done short-term but long-term turns in to a bubble that can only burst with horrible repercussions. Why should the unemployed, asylum seekers…get to live in locations, properties that are financially out of the reach of someone who works? Again utter madness, only a lunatic with no financial acumen would impose such a system, yet again we see the work of politicians.

    Regarding the minimum wage have a look at Milton Friedmans take on the minimum wage you’ll probably change your mind about it being a good thing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca8Z__o52sk
  • Its a mad thing paying £400 per week for housing benefit,I think this is london problem tbh however £400 dont get much in central london, an ex council flat in islington or brixton ,.
    Its just plain stupid.
    I do tend to think that landlords who have been cashing in, like this will drop the price when they find out all of the tenents are moving out.
    how about all the councils buying back the property they sold of ? never should have been done in the first place imo,this would still be cheaper than paying for b and b and rent to landlords, and would lower demand and private rent prices would drop .
    the stupid housing bubble that has blighted the uk has gone too far ,prices would have to drop by a huge amount before anyone on a normal wage could buy in many places .
  • hit the nail firmly on the head i would say, Adrian
  • I couldn't agree more. The fact that after doing the maths, Me and my partner and another couple would not be able to afford even a modest mortgage in a not great area of leeds sums it up! House prices are simply too high relative to income, and for those wanting them to rise, whos gonna pay you?



    Adrian Hackett said:
    Hopefully this will have an affect on the 'for sale' or ownership market. The two are inextricably linked. Rental incomes in part fuel the rise in prices of properties (ie higher rent = higher house prices).

    Presently, landlords know that they can pretty much charge what they like if they're renting to housing benefit claimants, as the government picks-up the tab, and so prices go up and up. The rent price doesn't reflect the quality of the accomodation so much as what the landlord could get if he / she sold it.

    The new changes should help to cool-down the housing market, and it needs to, because at the moment, ordinary hard-working people can neither afford to get on the propery ladder, nor move up it.

    But then, what do i know, I'm only a gardener!
  • My wife and I have been discussing this tonight, how can we get to the situation where people are subsidised to the tune of a salary that I would like to earn merely to pay rent.
    My daughter is a teacher, 4 years at uni, huge student loan but saving for a house, after stoppages she doesn't get the £400 a week these benifits will be capped at.
    My sisters husband broke his back aged seventeen and hasn't walked since, he worked before he broke his back and once he was out of hospital he was back to work full time, he is fifty next year and still working, still paying income tax.
  • I was really just trying to put the level of housing benifit even after the cap in context, i.e the level of cost is equivalant to a salary paid to a professional teacher.
    As for sister in laws husband, I would say it was his self respect, when he was in Stoke Mandeville, this was before it was rebuilt, he said to me "Phil you don't know how lucky I am"
    I was totally gobsmacked "lucky in what way" I said
    "He replied that bloke in the next bed has got a higher break than me and has got a lot less movement"
    He never expected not to work, always tried to do as much as he possibly could, he as far is he is concerned is not disabled but just not able to walk.
    I haven't got too many heroes but he is near the top if not top of the list.


    The Garden Co said:

    great your daughter getting a good education etc , but thats her choice to do this with the student loan , she didnt have to be a teacher etc , but do encourage such personal improvement ! sisters hubby , did he have to go back to work as he couldnt get benifits or was it his own choice 1 not being picky etc on the 2 cases but this is how things are today etc
    Fenlandphil said:
    My wife and I have been discussing this tonight, how can we get to the situation where people are subsidised to the tune of a salary that I would like to earn merely to pay rent.
    My daughter is a teacher, 4 years at uni, huge student loan but saving for a house, after stoppages she doesn't get the £400 a week these benifits will be capped at.
    My sisters husband broke his back aged seventeen and hasn't walked since, he worked before he broke his back and once he was out of hospital he was back to work full time, he is fifty next year and still working, still paying income tax.
  • At Stoke Mandeville at that time the consultant surgeon was in a wheel chair, so the patients were given an expectation of what they should aspire to. Jimmy Saville used to porter there at the time and I know helped a lot.
    A chap I worked with at the time said that Saville only did it for publicity but he used to work there weekends and nights when there were no tv cameras or reporters around.
    When I went to school, we as lads were taught that when we left school we should work and bring in a wage to keep a wife and family, girls were expected to make a home, look after a husband and bring up children.
    It wasn't perfect as a plan, it needed work particularly as far as the girls were concerned but at least it was a plan, which is what we are lacking now.
  • yes deserves a medal , but no better thought off !

    He wouldn't want a medal, people like him don't but I think people in his position that work ought to do the interviewing of people who want to claim incapacity benifit.
  • I've met a gentleman who lost a foot in a motorcycle accident, and happily manages to do Arb-consultancy work, He simply did what he could, and got on with life, as opposed to some former schoolmates I know who are happy to say "I wanna be a builder, aint no jobs" or "I want to work in a bar, but during the day", and bum around all day. They belive that SOMEONE owes them a JOB and a LIVING, and have no mental connection between that and the concept of working in return for it.
    Perhaps its a generational thing? Or perhaps its to do with the last Govts emphasis on "entitlement" and "right to x y z" etc, but that's academic, No body owes anyone anything but courtesy, respect, politeness and honesty.
  • It boils down in the end to gving people rights in return for accepting responsibilities, if you can't accept as a citizen you have responsibilities, you shouldn't expect too much in the way of rights or entitlement.



    David Cox said:
    I've met a gentleman who lost a foot in a motorcycle accident, and happily manages to do Arb-consultancy work, He simply did what he could, and got on with life, as opposed to some former schoolmates I know who are happy to say "I wanna be a builder, aint no jobs" or "I want to work in a bar, but during the day", and bum around all day. They belive that SOMEONE owes them a JOB and a LIVING, and have no mental connection between that and the concept of working in return for it.
    Perhaps its a generational thing? Or perhaps its to do with the last Govts emphasis on "entitlement" and "right to x y z" etc, but that's academic, No body owes anyone anything but courtesy, respect, politeness and honesty.
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