The Welfare Reform Bill is almost law

[colin25]

Perhaps I am not being clear..i commented on Alan Fry's comment about a decent job etc..time of comment is 14:10

Can't explain any better than that

[Taf]

AFAIK JSA, ESA or IS are considered "enough" to live on IF you have full council tax benefits to pay the community charge and rent too? Or are living with someone who has full council tax benefits?

Although in the latter case, they will end up paying some of the charges due to income into that home, if someone else in the home brings home JSA, ESA or IS.

It'll all be as clear as mud once Universal Benefits start.....

[Chrysalis]

I cant see the cap causing any major issues. 26k is a LOT of money to live on each year as long as luxuries are kept low and no huge existing debts like a mortgage.

I was shocked to find out tho the planned new age discrimination on housing benefit raising the shared room rate from 25 to 35 will actually effect existing claimants from this year, thats going to make people homeless. The descrepency housing fund will be stretched with that one.

---------- Post added at 21:10 ---------- Previous post was at 21:07 ----------

Originally Posted by Derek

There are plenty of jobs around. Why do you think so many people from Eastern Europe decided to come here? If someone whose first language isn't English, so immediately is at a disadvantage, can get a job fairly easily why do you think that is?

Is it A-all employers secretly hate British people or B-they tend to take jobs that some see as beneath them and won't work for it when they are paid the same, or in some cases more, for being unemployed.

There is 3 issues here really.

1 - the jobs tend to be congregated in certian areas. Hence some areas its a lot easier to find work than others, in theory people could just move but life isnt that simple.
2 - many jobs are temporary and short term, so can hardly be called real jobs but rather provide a gap in benefit dependency.
3 - many advertised jobs dont actually exist.

---------- Post added at 21:16 ---------- Previous post was at 21:10 ----------

Originally Posted by martyh

Yes on individual benefits ,there is nothing stopping the total of all benefits going way above the average wage .For example a couple with 8 kids living in a private rented house in westminster can get £8000 pm in HB and with all other benefits combined will be about £35-40000 per year .The new cap will stop that and keep the total of all combined benefits below £26,000 .This does not apply to some disability benefits though ,they remain untouched

The single most biggest effect on benefits is children. Before now there was no cap at all to benefit income with number of children. the only cap of sorts was the number of rooms allowed in a property. This 26k cap is only going to affect a small tiny % of claimants but those it does affect will probably have a shock if they significantly above it. The 35 age limit on one room flats judging by the amount it saves (a pittance) is probably also not going to affect very many but that one will likely wreck lives. The sort of changes on the welfare been pushed through is what I dont like as they targeting the wrong areas, the areas been targeted are the politically friendly ones rather than the most expensive ones.

Also doing things to reduce housing benefits like dropping LHA from bottom 50% to bottom 30% wont make market rents go down, instead it makes the claimant just have to subsidise the rent more. Or add extra strain on councils with their discretionary housing fund.

The only thing that will make market rents go down is reducing demand per house which is effectively to build more houses, particurly council houses/flats.

After I left the RAF, I shared houses/flats for five years (up to the age of 29) - it was all I could afford (I was working, new into IT at the time)?

Why should housing benefit be paid so they can have a place of their own, when those in work are sharing a house.

Doesn't sound very equitable to me.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Taf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17204301

The cap for benefits is going to hurt us, even if they stick to their promise not to include payments for the disabled. There is no sign yet that the cap will increase as the years go by, so it will get worse and worse.

How will this cap be fair when a single person will have the same cap as a large family all living together, with no prospect of affording, or being able enough, to leave?

That's the starting post, just to be clear.

To the OP: may I ask how many children you have?

[Taf]

Twin boy and girl.