'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?

[Boto]

Connenmara, no I have always been Boto!

[Connemmara]

then I think Tilly2 has an avatar like your wee dog.

[Boto]

Will have to look for Tilly2's and perhaps change mine - avatar I'm talking about!

[Psybbo]

Tilly2 has a close friend staying this week and has said she won't be on AB

[tonyav]

I think Tilly's avatar is a Staffie.

[Boto]

Have now found Tilly2's avatar and it is a staffie.

[joko]

i do disagree with bringing this law in though - because they clearly haven't worked it out properly and will end up in chaos and with all sorts of people being unfairly penalised - and we will ses endless cases in the papers of how one families terrible circumstances were ignored etc.

there should be more people exempt than eligible really if you work out the circumstances.

they should have spent a lot longer working it out and making it fair and right.

[bednobs]

i'm not sure what the fact i know what bereavement feels like has to do with the bedroom tax umm, but it just serves my point - em10 is likening having to move to a bereavement (well, sort of), so wouldn't you want to do anything to avoid that? Ie get a job

[bednobs]

someone pointed out the other day that a fairer way of doing it would be to find the properties for the people to move into, then if they decline, cut the benefit

[shaneystar2]

All very well saying get a job .
I don't think em is any spring chicken ( sorry em) .Nor is she in the best of health and she has been bereaved by the loss of her husband .Possibly having to leave her home where it seems she has lived for a long time must feel like a bereavement to her as well .Women pushing sixty haven't a gnats of getting a well paid job these days.Ageism is still rife in the workforce.

[emmie]

i wasn't going to comment but here is the thing, nothing but nothing is worse than bereavement, but when you have spent a lifetime in one place, have invested all your capital or most you had to spare in its upkeep and indeed added to it's value, because the council didn't, then i would find it hard to leave. So after losing o/h, job, and indeed much more, which you don't know about, nor do i intend speaking about on here, to be thought of as some seem to, a benefit scrounger, and one who should vacate the property or get another job seems to me missing some points, one of the most important being what kind of job, where and how will i earn enough at this stage of my life to pay for it all, answer of course is i won't. I have worked in various fields, one for a large corporation, where ageism, sexism existed, believe me when i say that i doubt very much that has really changed. Even in my 40's i was told i was too old, over qualified, for any of the 100's of jobs i applied for. Most don't even tell you, but having worked for agencies i know how it works. I just love the fact that homes and jobs are so readily available. If that's the case why are there over 2 million unemployed.

[emmie]

shaney, sadly i am not, but you know what all those women i have come across who have lost their husbands also worked, also supported their families and also are having to move, that is unless they pay the extra, none i have spoken with in recent days wants to, they have family and friends in the area, but have not found or been offered smaller properties to move into. That fact is not lost on the local councils. And also sadly their only advice is to move out of the area, or capital...

[Sharingan]

Em10 your house is your home and you should not be forced out by cuts in benefit and made to feel as though you have no right to want to keep it. xxx

[cazzz1975]

its probably cheaper in the long run to pay it than move house and incur all the costs of uprooting.

[emmie]

thank you, i intend staying as far as i can, and before anyone says well there are things you can give up, i already have, but i don't smoke, nor drive, so two things that don't affect me, but there are still the rest of the bills, and indeed all the add ons the council puts on to properties now, not just the rent, which i have been paying all along. I really don't care for this policy, but it's in and there seems to be little one can do but pay, and if the likes of Desktop says she won't, can't then i am sorry not sure what else one can say to that.

[shaneystar2]

Don't let the b's grind you down em .
It's all very well for some to talk but when you are on your own it must be difficult .I certainly wouldn't like to be uprooted at my age and plonked somewhere where I knew nobody and would have to start all over again .
And these are the sort of people this is going to affect .The elderly ,the disabled and those in low paid work who claim benefits .
I agree that families need more room but I'll bang on again about Maggie ,she sold off social housing to those who could afford to buy but neglected to replace it for those who couldn't .
It's a ill thought out policy that is just going to cause a great divide .

[tamborine]

Em most in private homes have to move & downsize after OHs die.

[EDDIE51]

Many on here do not realise that most housing benefit claimants ARE working . If you live in London or a big city how do you pay rent of £250 a week or more out of an average wage of £325 or so, many are on minimum wage so do not even get near that.

[shaneystar2]

Do they ? Have you ?
My elderly aunt lived in her own four bed property for thirty years after her husband died and then she died in it .Nobody who owns private property is forced to downsize unless they feel like it or personal circumstances dictate otherwise .
This is about social housing not private .