Bedroom Tax

[Chunk]

So, if you get housing benefit and you have unused bedrooms in your rented property your benefit is reduced to encourage you to downsize.

Sounds fair enough to me given the housing shortAge.

However, a lot of people are up in arms over this. I havdntt heard the other side of the story. What's their beef?

[SimonMac]

So, if you get housing benefit and you have unused bedrooms in your rented property your benefit is reduced to encourage you to downsize.

Sounds fair enough to me given the housing shortAge.

However, a lot of people are up in arms over this. I havdntt heard the other side of the story. What's their beef?

I thought this was gonna be about NLyUK taking her 15% off the top

[eek]

So, if you get housing benefit and you have unused bedrooms in your rented property your benefit is reduced to encourage you to downsize.

Sounds fair enough to me given the housing shortAge.

However, a lot of people are up in arms over this. I havdntt heard the other side of the story. What's their beef?

Its fine in London where many available properties are small flats.

Up north most cheap rentals are 2/3 bedroom older terrace houses. The smaller flats they want people to move to either don't exist or are modern and more expensive to rent.

[eek]

I thought this was gonna be about NLyUK taking her 15% off the top

I see you get her maximum frequent usage discount.

[Chunk]

Its fine in London where many available properties are small flats.

Up north most cheap rentals are 2/3 bedroom older terrace houses. The smaller flats they want people to move to either don't exist or are modern and more expensive to rent.

Oh ok. Sounds like a poorly thought through policy then.

[TheFaQQer]

What's their beef?

It only works where there are houses / flats to move into. If there aren't, then you can't downsize unless you move out of the area (and possibly not even then).

Thatcher allowed the sale of council houses, but there has been no replacement of the stock - even now, Osborne won't let councils reinvest the money from property sales into new housing stock.

[minestrone]

A lot of disabled people are getting stiffed as the special care homes they built for them had an extra room so they have no downsize options.

Typical Tories, a good idea in theory that has just not been thought through and justifiably pisses some people off and creates a point of argument to the people it should be 'taxing'.

[sasguru]

Up north most cheap rentals are 2/3 bedroom older terrace houses. The smaller flats they want people to move to either don't exist or are modern and more expensive to rent.

Is that true? Are people being forced to vacate larger council house properties without being re-housed?
And when you say more expensive, not at market rates, certainly.

It's this whole entitlement culture that's wrong IMO.

[vetran]

So, if you get housing benefit and you have unused bedrooms in your rented property your benefit is reduced to encourage you to downsize.

Sounds fair enough to me given the housing shortAge.

However, a lot of people are up in arms over this. I havdntt heard the other side of the story. What's their beef?

The charge, which was perfectly reasonable as a stick to move single grannies out of desperately needed 4 bedroom houses because 'its my home' is applied whether the council can supply a smaller home or not. Plus partial usage isn't counted.

1. You have a 4 bedroom house the kids leave home and you ask for a flat the council doesn't have one they still charge you for the three spare bedrooms.
2. if you have a 2 bedroom flat and the wife leaves you taking the kids then you get charged for the spare room even if the kids stay 3 days a week.
3. You wife is sick and you have all her medical equipment (gas bottles, tank or hospital bed) in the spare bedroom they charge you.
4. you are between eligibilities, e.g. you have a 15 yr old daughter in a separate bedroom to a younger sister who would be due her own bedroom under the rules in a few months. They charge.


it was supposed to be a stick to move house hoggers that refused to move when their situation had changed but its being applied to people who are really in need.

its because no politician has the balls to make all council tenancies fixed term say 2 years and give the council a right to move people to smaller houses or withdraw council support where tenants no longer need it.

Yes Bob Crowe on £145,000 with a council house and subsidised rent I'm talking about you!

[MaryPoppins]

Is that true? Are people being forced to vacate larger council house properties without being re-housed?

Yes, it's true. If a smaller property exists, you could apply for it. Most of the time, a smaller property won't exist/be available in the area. People aren't being 'forced' to vacate housing. They're to pay a 'tax' for staying in the larger property.