'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?

[Gromit]

Desktop

The money is deducted from your Housing Benefit. If you are liable to pay it there is no way of avoiding it.

[ummmm]

I agree with it in principle.

They haven't thought it through though.

Disabled people are going to suffer, that's wrong.

[ummmm]

You will be evicted, desktop.

[emmie]

no it won't, and yes i am affected by it, so much so, that it may come to moving out entirely, losing my home will be next to losing my o/h, and where to move to is anyone's guess. I have seen some of the fall out already.

[Boto]

In principle I agree with it but think it needs tweaking. Don't see how anyone can avoid paying because you will just receive less benefit or have I got it wrong?

[ummmm]

Boto...You're right. Desktop is wrong.

[emmie]

i will be losing a considerable amount, and yes it's going to hurt like hell, and downsizing won't be possible, nor indeed will it see me spending any less, as my rent currently isn't quite as high as some, so downsizing will probably mean paying the same or perhaps more in rent. If you don't understand that then sorry.

[emmie]

desktop, you have pay it or be evicted.

[Gizmonster]

It only affects people living in houses owned by council/housing associations.
If you're currently renting from a private landlord, you're already being penalised, as your rent would have been capped and you'll prob be paying a top up rent to the landlord.
This measure is just equalizing the current differences between the 2 ..... I'm not saying I agree/disagree, I'm just making sure people fully realise what's going on.

I posted something similar a lil' while ago:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1225123.html

[emmie]

receiving less benefits means paying the difference, so 14 percent on 1 bed, and 25 loss of benefit on 2 extra bedrooms.

[EDDIE51]

It has been badly thought out, there are a lot of exemptions haveing to be made. For example a bedroom reserved for a child who is away at University/ collage or serving in the armed forces has been exempted, people who can't share a bedroom due to disability are also being exempted. Pensioners , which means any person or couple where one of them is at or over the qualifying age for pension credit are not effected .
I am 62 so we qualify as a pensioner couple, though as I said we are now looking to move to a 1 bed place.
There are other exceptions as well .

[naomi24]

Em, I'm confiused. Obviously by staying in a house with more rooms than you need, you'd lose some housing benefit, but if you moved into a home with less rooms, wouldn't the housing benefit cover the rent entirely?

[emmie]

the only information received from the council was a few weeks back, now have received the letter saying what will have to pay, as said might just as well throw in the towel now. To those who own their homes see it as fair, as they assume that why would you need to have spare rooms, well perhaps they weren't once, and if you have invested a lifetime in your home, and got them to a standard the council would never have done, and they don't, then you see this as unfair, however i am done with this, i am already feeling ill.

[sandyRoe]

Does the fact that someone has roots in their community count for nothing?

[theshedman]

Some councils have also started charging council tax to those who were previously exempt and there is no way to get out of this even by moving to smaller house.

[mikey4444]

The Tories are playing their old trick....slap the poor down as hard as possible, run for cover and see what happens. IDS should know better. After all he spent the last few years after being kicked out of the leadership of the Tory Party factfinding.

On the surface it would seem eminently sensible to do something about the housing crisis in Britain today. But they should be building new council houses, not hounding old people out of the homes and communities that they have been living in for years.

Building new council houses would get 10,000's of the dole, replenish our housing stock and reduce the growing band of ghastly private landlords that have sprung up in Britain these last few years. All those unemployed chippies, sparkes, etc would no longer be a drain on society any more, and they would have more money to spend, which would be double gain for Britain, so whats not to like ?

Britain doesn't need more "executive" housing, otherwise known as expensive houses, that nobody has the money to buy. We need affordable housing that ordinary people can live in.

The minimum wage in Britain is only £6.19 an hour ! What kind of mortgage does anybody think that they can get by earning such low wages.

We wouldn't have the minimum wage at all if it wasn't for the Labour government bringing it in. The Tories had 18 years to enact such legislation but couldn't be bothered, because " there was no such thing as society" apparently.

[emmie]

Naomi, first off the smaller homes are in short supply, 1 beds are not easily available. Those that are are not necessarily under council control, in their portfolio, so would have to be rented privately. I posted a link on another thread about renting 1 bed in one borough, the rents are high even for 1 bed. If i downsize it would likely have to be out of the capital,

[emmie]

just one borough, 1 bed properties.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Camden-93941/1-bed-flats.html