I Wonder If Anyone Else Will Be So Lucky?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/council-tenant-wins-right-not-to-be-sent-to-milton-keynes-10124344.html

/// She argued that if she were to leave London she would have lost a network of friends that support her when she is unwell with depression, diabetes and high blood pressure. ///

Don't they have a NHS in Milton Keynes?

[ummmm]

What planet do you live on?

I'd be distressed if I had to move to a different area than where I am now let alone from London to MK.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

'Beggars' can't be choosers, they are not forcefully making her homeless.

You obviously disagree with the the Government’s £500 weekly benefits cap?

If so how much should it be, unlimited, so some can continue to live in the style they have become accustomed to?

[Mosaic]

The kids are settled in school in Westminster - she's lived there for yonks - and she's not so well and would find it upsetting. It's not simply a question of changing her GP.

[Mosaic]

AOG - do you regret the closing of the workhouses?

[ummmm]

I don't disagree with the benefits cap per se....but I do disagree with uprooting a whole family.

I live close to my friends and family...I'd be distraught if I had to leave them.

Like the article says....they are getting rid of poor people.

It's so easy to judge, sitting in our own homes, in a nice part of town, looking down our noses.

[Jackdaw33]

What is particularly cruel about this case is that they want to send this poor woman and her brood to Milton Keynes. Surely that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is outlawed by the Human Right Act.

[tamborine]

As my dad was army, we moved every 2-3 years & I went to 12 schools. Why should tax payers have to pay Westminster benefit costs.

[hc4361]

Tambo, I assume your mother had support from the other army wives, and you the other children in the same boat.

[jackthehat]

Do you really view 'the poor' as some sort of commodity to be shunted around the country on an arbitrary basis, AOG?

What if she were your daughter and it meant that you'd have to travel an additional 50 miles to see your Grandchildren?

A 21st Century return to The Poor Laws is not really something of which to be proud.

[anotheoldgit]

Mosaic

/// AOG - do you regret the closing of the workhouses? ///

No need for sarcasm, this woman and her family are not being thrown out on the streets, she has been offered a house and is presumably receiving £500 per week in benefits, whereas there are many who work very hard but don't get paid that amount.

[douglas9401]

The bench in the photo seems to offer just the right amount of space for four.
It's a bit basic but it will mean that their network of friends will be able to keep in contact.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// I don't disagree with the benefits cap per se....but I do disagree with uprooting a whole family. ///

Yes I agree but what is the answer? The rent on her London flat became unaffordable, so short of putting a cap on rents, what do you suggest?

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// Do you really view 'the poor' as some sort of commodity to be shunted around the country on an arbitrary basis, AOG? ///

Instead of being so dramatic, perhaps you could come up with an answer to this 'POOR' woman's predicament?

/// What if she were your daughter and it meant that you'd have to travel an additional 50 miles to see your Grandchildren? ///

I would be diving into my own pocket so as to subsidise her, incidentally where is the Father of her brood?

/// A 21st Century return to The Poor Laws is not really something of which to be proud. ///

If given £500 per week in handouts, is this centuries 'Poor Laws' then it can't be all that bad.

[Gromit]

// Don't they have a NHS in Milton Keynes? //

Bit of a daft thing to ask, of course they have the NHS in Milton Keynes. That was not her reason for not wanting to be uprooted and moved 50 miles away. She would lose her network of friends and people who help her.
She didn't do anything wrong to lose her tenancy in Westminster, the Government capped her housing benefit so she was forced out.

Why Westminster Council could not find her an alternative home in its area or close by is a mystery, but it smacks of Social Cleansing. She was not a typical Tory voter so force her out of the constituency.

[ummmm]

They aren't 'given' the money. They have their housing paid for. You're talking like people get £500 cash in hand.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

// Don't they have a NHS in Milton Keynes? //

/// Bit of a daft thing to ask, of course they have the NHS in Milton Keynes. ///

First it is rather rude to say a fellow ABer is saying daft things, but then as a moderator rules only apply to us lesser mortals.

But before accusing me of asking daft things, can't you yourself tell when a person is not talking literally.

/// That was not her reason for not wanting to be uprooted and moved 50 miles away. She would lose her network of friends and people who help her.
She didn't do anything wrong to lose her tenancy in Westminster, the Government capped her housing benefit so she was forced out. ///

No like everyone else, you one cannot afford the rent then they have to move into cheaper accommodation, if there is none in a particular area then one also has to move areas..

/// Why Westminster Council could not find her an alternative home in its area or close by is a mystery, but it smacks of Social Cleansing. She was not a typical Tory voter so force her out of the constituency. ///

Well from one who accuses others of saying daft things that has got to be the daftest of all times, how on earth can you possible know she is not a Tory voter, apart from the fact that that is a typical leftist interpretation.

Notice that you haven't come out and criticised all those imported foreign landlords of making fortunes from their ridiculously exorbitant rents.

[Gromit]

The cap on housing benefits should obviously have a London weighting, especially in a place like Westminster. Westminster will have more mansions paying the top band of Council Tax. The council will recieve far more revenue from its greater wealthy residents than anywhere else in the country. Some more of that should go to help poor made homeless by the cap set at an arbitary amount which is too low for Westminster.

But maybe the whole point of the cap is not to save money, but to rid well to do areas of the unsightly poor?