Welfare cash cards

Children needs clothes, including school uniform, and shoes, bus fares, visits to museums, galleries and the seaside, opportunities to play with their friends and go to their birthday parties. Parents need shoes and winter coats, bus fares and, these days, mobile phones. There is absolutely no way anyone could produce a welfare card that will pay only for "good" things, refuse to pay for "bad" things and get it it right even 10% of the time, even if we could agree what was good and what was bad in the first place. This is simply an idea to appease the extreme right wing of the Tory party and those voters who believe that anyone having a hard time somehow deserves it. And if I sound angry, it's because i am.

nanaej couldnt agree with you more that there are lots of families that are on benefits and are just honest people down on their luck

In which case these people would have no problems with receiving a card instead of cash to spend on food.

For me its all about minimising the negative effects on children that have irresponsable parents.

cheelu I think there are a number of reasons why landlords don't want to accept DHHS applicants – I have mentioned the insurance issue earlier – but I'm not aware that there have been constant changes in the way it works – not from a landlord's point of view, anyway.

Well said nanaej. I find all this manipulation with words – hand outs instead of benefits and strivers and skivers, for example – infuriating, frustrating and downright evil. Even some of the posters on GN seem to have been seduced into a 1984 world. The pen truly is mightier than the sword.

cheelu I have also worked with very many families and children in difficult circumstances. Whilst there were some families on benefit who did not give the appropriate level of care to their children many more struggled to do right by their kids, often at the expense of their personal needs.
Sensationalising stories about families on benefit is unhelpful and creates a real them & us divide that perpetuates the situation. Many of those parents were once just like the little children you and I have worked with and worry about. These families need proper support not further 'demonisation'

cheelu What on earth is wrong with wearing odd socks?

Many people find themselves out of work for reasons beyond their control and they are then entitled to benefits. Someone on Radio 4 this morning said the poor have no access to credit, and it is true. Some people have no safety net of savings or property to fall back on. Some people get help from family members while others have no-one in a position to help them. Many people don't claim the benefits or all the benefits they are entitled to but we only hear about those who claim fraudulently or waste the money.

It is so sad Cheelu A friend of mine worked in a SureStart centre in quite a deprived area. She often had me in tears with tales of little children arriving in the morning wearing the same filthy clothes they went home in and children who's last meal was the one they had before they left the centre on the previous day! It is hard to believe we still have this level of deprivation in this country.

PS Landlords are not happy to accept DHSS applicants as it is called now due to the constant changes in the rules layed out by government..

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VQ Your family is lucky in that you dont spend your money on drink gambling etc but honestly you are amongst the minority.

I have worked with families in playcentres/after school clubs and you would not believe the problems we had to face every day of the week, childrren coming to school with no coats no breakfast odd socks no socks I could go on forever--These families were on benefits claiming stuff on behalf and because of their children then spending it openly on booze etc

I know you to be a good person and believe me if you had to witness what I have witnessed, you would probably want to lobby yourself for this cash card.

I hope so. I would always pay my rent regardless. I was always brought up that it was your most important outgoing.

Vampirequeen I don't think landlords can give you notice outside the terms of the tenancy agreement unless you are two months in arrears with the rent. Even then, it doesn't always follow that you would have to go. If you're getting housing benefit, then you wont be in arrears. Any reasonable landlord would have an understanding of your situation if it need to be explained to him/her.

Surely if you have always been a good tenant, he would want to stay with you? Perhaps you should look at your tenancy agreement. He can't give you notice on the grounds of losing your job, can he?

I am terrified my landlord finds out we're now claiming benefits. He let his house to a full time teacher not someone on housing benefit. I don't know how he'd take it if he found out my circumstances had changed and I don't want to lose my home.

Riverwalk So far as I understand tenants could choose whether their housing benefit was paid directly to the landlord or to them. In future it will always be paid directly to them.

anno Are you aware that insurance companies specifically exclude tenants on housing benefit from standard buildings insurance and that you have to pay an increased premium if they are?

Posts crossed, anno.

I've also seen comments to the effect that while landlords were very happy to let to claimants in the past because they knew they would get their rent, they might be much less willing in future. I remember when 'To Let' ads said ,'No UB40' or similar.

Landlords are already reluctant to rent to benefit claimants and this can only lead to increased homelessness when Universal Credit kicks in.

Practicalities as to the workability of the card aside, the bone of contention here is that some people think that it's patronising and demeaning for benefits to be controlled and claimants told how to manage their budgets; a fair enough concern.

I understand that in the past, housing benefit was paid directly to the landlord and under the new scheme claimants will be given the money to budget for themselves, so no patronising there - people given the dignity of controlling their own finances. And with an annual cap of 25,000 pounds net.

However, housing charities have complained that this will lead to more homelessness as people with competing demands on their benefits e.g. school uniform & food, or pay the rent this week, are likely to choose food and uniform.

Riverwalk The person in receipt of the card could still spend some of the putative rent in the supermarket or in the shoe shop when the housing benefit is just bundled in with other benefits. When it is paid directly to the landlord, all bases are covered.

Yes, Absent I understand that housing benefit is for paying rent!

All I was trying to say was if that housing benefit was part of the welfare card then you wouldn't be out of pocket.

Riverwalk It's called housing benefit – paying the rent is what it is for. I wasn't thinking about it as part of a "welfare card", just responding to a much earlier post about people being made homeless if they have difficulty handling their finances and the housing benefit is paid directly to them rather than to their landlord. That of course is a serious issue and I have no desire to see families put out of house and home because they are not very good at budgeting.

Speaking of Gove, I can't understand why there isn't a national outcry about the enforced privatisation of the state education service. All without any discussion or debate in Parliament and without new legislation, school after school is being found to be 'unsatisfactory' under new Ofsted guidelines and forced to become an academy whether the governors and parents want it or not! At least the privatisation of the Health Service is being discussed in and out of Parliament.

Are you not arguing against yourself here Absent

If a welfare card were to include rent your tenant would not have had the freedom to use his benefit for other purposes.