Bedroom Tax

[marje]

So, there's been a suicide because of the 'bedroom tax'. Poor woman couldn't afford the £80 per month for 2 empty bedrooms when her children left home. How many more before it's abolished?

[Octavius]

My uncle hung himself and my mates dad gassed himself in his car. It might have been the poll tax what did it.

[woofgang]

sorry em, I forgot "service users" and "clients"

[albaqwerty]

Never knew we were allowed to 'chat' outside of chatterbank.

If you are in a deep, dark hole and the only way is to kill yourself, then no amount of therapy/help raises the darkness into light.

I feel so sorry for this woman and her family.
Whether she had an illness, mental or otherwise, does not take away or add to the fact that she felt strongly enough to leave this mortal coil.

[emmie]

every time someone calls me a client, i think of prostitution, they spend more money on management speak, seminars on how to improve the services, than actually treating the people. At the coalface and sinking fast.

[ummmm]

I worked for years in a psychiatric hospital. Does that qualify me in having an opinion?

Shar is right. Drinking imaginary cocktails in the news section comes across as very immature. Save it for ChatterBank...

[jim360]

Returning to the title of the thread, I do think that the law itself has been rushed through without thought to possible consequences. The discretionary contingency funds will only go so far towards caring for people in this sort of situation, for whom £80 a month can make a massive difference. The situation could well become worse, as I noted earlier, when Universal Credit comes in. So far there are no plans for a similar contingency, which could mean that yet more people are hit by such huge percentages of money disappearing without any hope of claiming it back.

This case is tragic, but didn't particularly impact my thoughts of this measure, as I felt this already was the case.

[Svejk]

Last week we had the story of a woman threatening to put her autistic son in a home because of this.
Yeah right, instead of paying £20 a week from her £360 benefits, she was going to do that and live on £70 a week.
Sadly, some people will,shamelessly, use any story to bolster their political outlook.

[emmie]

it's an ill thought through change, and it will affect many of the poorer people in our society, count me in that category, i know a number of others in the same predicament, and they are already struggling to cope, so add on more financial woes to an uncertain future and wait for the fall out. Benefit changes were needed, but this is how our council explained it by letter and in our local press. They were left with a large shortfall from central government so the money had to come from somewhere,
hey presto.

[emmie]

was that 360 quid a week, if so how much does her rent cost, food, heating, bills, work it out and let me know would you.

[jim360]

The problem is that any cuts to the state were bound to hit the poorest hardest. That's because many depend on the state for either all or part of their income. They would end up hit first. It's not, to use Iain Duncan Smith's favourite word, "fair" that the poorest get hit hardest. Bit it's not really avoidable either, as we have seen that the rich can afford to hide their money, and far too many choose to do so.

Moreover, the present economic mess is very real, but is at times being used by the Tories to bring in changes they wanted to anyway. Quite a few benefit change policies are ones that were carried over from pre-1997, the last time the Conservatives held office. They were blocked then, or withdrawn because of opposition, but are being forced through now, under the cloak of "cutting the deficit".

[ladybirder]

If I lived in a 3 bedroom council house which I couldn't afford to heat or light (before the benefit changes) and the reasons I got the house in the first place, my children, had left home, and there were families in desperate need of this house that I alone was occupying would I give it up? Yes, even without being given the choice of three places. You can't hold onto somewhere bigger than you need when the rent is coming from the public purse. Now shoot me.

[chrisgel]

Just got in and read through this.
The woman left a note! She explained why she was doing it she explained who SHE thought was to blame and she had already told friend "I can’t afford to live anymore"
And people on here have the arrogance to presume that she must have been mental.
I despair really.

[magsmay]

chrisgel -//And people on here have the arrogance to presume that she must have been mental//
I despair that you think someone potentially suffering from depression and anxiety is 'mental'

[jim360]

I'm well aware that she left a note, it doesn't mean that the Government should change its policy because of this one case. I have already explained that there was an alternative route she could have taken that would have provided the financial support she needed. And I have also explained that calling her "mentally ill" is not an insult. Far better that, than misinformed and rash for not checking to see what other choices she had.

I could leave a note, too. Could well have done so in the past. It wouldn't suddenly have made me rational, or made the causes what was to blame. A woman in India once left a note explaining that she had killed herself because she feared the world was going to end once the LHC started. No doubt she was perfectly rational, too. She was certainly misinformed, and misguided for believing the hype.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7609631.stm

[ludwig]

I'm sure her food and utility bills would have risen over the last couple of years as they have for all of us.

Should we not also be blaming Sainsbury's and British Gas for the suicide?

[lcg]

as someone who has claimed housing benefit and a mental health nurse, i would like to make a few points:
1. having suicidal thoughts does not necessarily make you mentally unwell - people in their right minds also try to kill themselves. suicidal thinking is not a mental illness, for some people it is a rational choice. not one you might make or agree with, but that's life.
2. 53 is not elderly
3. i do not believe for one minute the bedroom tax was the cause. maybe a factor, but not the cause.
4. it says in the article she was 'stuck' in her home. i again do not believe for one minute she could not have found someone willing to swap their 1 bed flat for her 3 bedroom house.
5. if you have to move to a private rented property housing benefit will pay for, then that is what people should do.
6. my house has 2 rooms downstairs - as such, when i was claiming housing benefit, i paid and extra £20 a week because i had an extra room. this is not a new concept for housing benefit - it just affects council tenants now.
7. council rent is so cheap it is easy to get off your bum to get a job to cover the rent. before anyone starts moaning about people with disabilities - i have mental health and physical disabilities and i work full time. of course, there are some who can't and these should be exempt.
8. it is a tax, as it is the removal of a subsidy.
9. why on earth do some people get wound up about stuff on here? chill.....

[emmie]

LB, same argument has been provided, that if you want to downsize first where to, if it's miles away how would that make you feel, no family, friends,
second there is according to the council and others i have spoken with a shortage of smaller properties, and the bizarre thing is this, that if hypothetically speaking my rent is 100 quid a week, but a smaller property becomes available and is 150 quid a week, the council will pay the whole rent, as it's a one bed, so it actually costs more. puzzled, not surprised.

[magsmay]

'sharingan //Jolly good Mags, enjoy getting hammered in an imaginary way //

hammered? I'd hardly call partaking of one cocktail getting hammered lol! Bless you you are so cute ;-/

[Svejk]

Em,£360 + the rent paid. Not that I think that makes too much difference. We live in a country where people are working hard all week for less than £200 a week.

[emmie]

is there a link, was it in the papers... would be interested in what she had to say