'bedroom Tax' - Anyone Agree With It?

[Gromit]

The so called 'Bedroom Tax' starts today. Anyone receiving Housing Benefit (HB) who has a spare room will have their HB reduced.

Will it solve the housing shortage?
or
Is it a cynical stealthy way to cut the benefits bill?

[sandyRoe]

What ever happened to the thought that an Englishman's home is his castle? Settled people are an asset to a community. If they can be decanted then the social fabric will become even more threadbare.

[Gromit]

From a National Housing Authority Report.

// The bedroom tax could cost taxpayers money
Ministers emphasise that saving taxpayers’ money is a key aim of the policy.
The only way the bedroom tax will save money is if the majority of families stay in their homes and try to absorb the loss of housing benefit – an average of £728 per year for one ‘spare’ room.5
If people do what the Government suggests, and find a smaller home to move to, in some cases housing benefit claims will actually increase.
This is because the only option for many families will be to downsize to the more expensive private rented sector. Families under-occupying two bedroom homes who move to a one-bed flat in the private rented sector would end up claiming an average of £1,500 more per year in housing benefit – even though they’ll be living in smaller properties.6
If the 95,000 households who, in our example above, are unable to get a one bedroom social home all moved to the private rented sector, it could lead to benefit claims increasing by £143m a year, based on the difference in average rents. On top of this another 480,000 families currently living in larger properties may also need to downsize to the private sector, which may result in additional costs. //

So if people comply with this, the Benefits bill goes up £143million a year. The Government only save money if people do not move, so the claimed reason for it, to reallocate housing stock better, is bogus.

[Gromit]

http://www.housing.org.uk/PDF/Bedroom%20tax%20home%20truths.pdf

[naomi24]

Actually, Gromit, I think that’s flawed. It seems to assume that those downsizing will relocate to the private sector, but fails to take into account to new availability of council homes for those currently accommodated, at public expense, in the private sector.

[emmie]

umm, this is my lifelong home, what on earth do you think keeps me here.

[ummmm]

I don't know. You may be happier moving out of the capital.

[emmie]

then i move, where to, if it's out of the capital, where to, if it's out of the capital then it will be some place i don't know, have no roots, ties to, have they got more homes, rooms available on council housing in say Leicester, Milton Keynes, what on earth would i be doing in those places i have absolutely no ties to, and too long in the tooth to start completely anew. The fact remains that for now i will pay up, that the fact remains that i paid rent, council tax for a long long time, that didn't get anything other than a roof, no or few improvements by the local authority, all that was done by me, long before illness kicked in. I agree it's not fair, but none of this is, and will you be happy seeming more families evicted because they simply can't afford the shortfall in benefits, i have already seen it happening, and it's not nice at all.

[daffy654]

Because driving a taxi isn't as lucrative as you obviously think it is jordyboy.

[Gromit]

Naomi,

You may have missed my post on the other thread. There are not enough smaller properties in the social housing portfolio to accommodate the demand if people want yo downsize.

// // JUST 20 empty one bedroom council homes are currently available in Welwyn Hatfield – even though more than 1,200 households may be forced to downsize from next month.

Controversial Government plans - labelled a “bedroom tax” by critics – mean some residents will be hit by annual benefit cuts of up to £1,040 after April 1 if they remain in their current home. //

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/not_enough_small_homes_to_enforce_bedroom_tax_shake_up_say_critics_1_1980277

[emmie]

jordy, how do bloody well know everyone gets something for nothing, how do you know they didn't work long ago, and because of illness were forced to stop, and that this will hit and has already hit many who can ill afford it.

[emmie]

ummm, if i had sufficient capital perhaps, but my ties are here, the governments of all persuasions pay more attention to blow ins than they do to people who have put their life's blood into their homes, communities, and country, than someone who walked in the door with their hand out. That is what i find so fecking galling.

[daffy654]

How about someone who drives a taxi in the middle of nowhere and the area is saturated with taxi firms?

[tonyav]

Mmmmmm yes the Tories are full of good idea's when it comes to taxing people, remember Thatcher and her poll tax idea !.

[emmie]

so you know one, so tarnish everyone else..

[pdq1]

Another tax on the poor obviously. Why doesn't the government put an extra tax for those people who have more than 1 house? Then some of those houses could be released into the housing pool so we wouldn;t have to worry about building more houses. Chris Huhme had about 8 houses not all of them for rent.

[Baldric]

desky, 08:32 Mon 01st Apr 2013
/// it will be taking out of our benefit///

Thought you said you didn't get any benefits?

[emmie]

this isn't going to go away, and the fallout will be enormous. For one thing the people in the capital are and have been for a long time, being priced out the areas, no one guarantees you i home, i agree with that statement. However if you have lived your 50/60 years in the same place, where will you upsticks to and with what.. Not to mention those who are forced to move out the capital and do work even 16 hours a week, how are they going to commute back into the capital, if they don't earn enough already. As someone said who will clean the homes and polish the shoes of the mighty with money.