Bedroom Tax

If you're on a pension you're ok Gran7.

Sorry should have added.....it won't affect you. Pensioners are exempt.

I think there's some complication about when universal credits come in and if one of you is of pension age and the other isn't but Gran7 is OK. This is one of the problems isn't it of changes like this - lots of people get worried and upset. Just like people believe they have to sell their house when they go into care when it all depends - and certainly not if remaining spouse still living there

Whilst not personally affected by this, I just cannot believe it is happening in 2013. This government seems determined to return to Victorian times ,themselves excepted of course, with resultant overcrowding and even more distress for those involved. Wonder how many spare rooms they have between them? !

Trendygran - I couldn't agree more. There seems something so inherently cruel and vindictive about it. They wheel out the one person with 3/4 bedrooms argument but no evidence as to how many this affects. And as I said on another thredd, if you have to leave social housing for the private sector, there's no security of tenure

It's just a way of cutting benefits on the sly. If I have to pay £100 a month towards my rent that's £100 less they have to pay me.

VQ - yes that's true if you stay in your social housing but there are some examples where moving would mean that the rent in the smaller house was higher than in the bigger house! That's one reason I think it's vindictive because it's somehow about more than cutting benefits.

I've looked in this area. There are no one bedroom properties that would be cheaper that the two bedroomed house we live in. And nothing at all for the £299 a month that we are allowed.

What are councils going to do about situations like this? It's just awful.....

There is nothing they can do. They can't build new one bedroom properties and they have no say in the setting of the rent allowance in each area.

It won't work. Most 'affordable housing' is two or three bed. There are just not enough one bed properties out there for rent. At least not around here. I don't see how the government can in effect fine people for having a spare room if there is no alternative accommodation.

In theory it's not a bad idea, but I think everyone should be entitled to one spare room. Couples don't always want to share a bedroom - excessive snoring, shift work - there are many reasons. And it's not unknown for a separated single person to want their child to stay. Or a friend/relation to help out when sickness strikes. And so on.

Exactly - and so on. There are many reasons to have a spare room. Also a one bedroom property is generally small overall so there's not even enough space for ordinary living for a couple ( or even a single person). Where do you dry the washing? Oh it's just vindictive .

I see what they're aiming at - an elderly person living in a four bedroomed house which s/he can't afford to heat or maintain while a family of four squeeze into a B&B room with shared facilities needs to be discouraged. But this......?

Camden council is planning to move some 700 families out of London all together. (The average wage in the area is £37,000 pa so rents are very high.) This will disrupt children's schooling and destroy any social support system of friends and family. If these families are being moved to an area where housing is cheaper, it might also prove to be an area where there is high unemployment. Not thought through, but then this is ultimately the responsibility of our central government so what do we expect?

Where will they forcibly move them to? We have lower wages and rents here but no spare houses.

What will they do with the empty houses?

I think people moving into smaller places has been happening all along, where there are enough council/social housing flats and houses with one bedroom. But they haven't been fined for not moving! I agree with vq. Where are they going to move them to?

Great Yarmouth! Quite a few homeless / jobless have been moved into B&Bs there in the past and then rehoused in the area - it's cheap.

But surely that just puts pressure on Great Yarmouth's infrastructure and makes it harder for locals to get houses.

I can understand the difficulty faced by local authorities when they have huge waiting lists for housing and have a large proportion of single people and/or couples living in three bedroomed homes that they have lived in for many years. Before my parents moved into their bungalow (and before the bedroom tax was even thought of) their local authority had a scheme where they approached single people or couples and offered them something smaller (usually a bungalow) together with a financial incentive to give up the larger home. In many cases it worked but some totally refused to move. Not sure what the answer is .

As bluebell mentioned, not all pensioners are exempt from the so-called bedroom tax. Those in mixed-age relationships, where one is of retirement age but the other is not, face a potentially huge fall in living standard, on top of being hit by the bedroom tax. Government ministers still keep coming out with the line "Pensioners will not be affected", but fail to mention that this does not apply to these mixed-age couples once Universal Credit is brought in. Over 90 000 people fall into that catagory.

If you are one of those people, but are already in receipt of Pension Credit, you don't need to worry - yet - as you will continue to get it.

However, and here's the rub - if you lose entitlement to Pension Credit, however briefly, you will not be able to claim it again at a later date.

In other words, if the younger partner manages to find a well-paid, but temporary job, you will not be able to claim Pension Credit again when that job ends. You will both be treated as if you were of working-age, meaning the younger partner will have to claim Universal Credit. Hence much lower benefit, bedroom tax, and almost certainly no eligibility for age-related means-tested benefits such as cold-weather payments.

I raised this topic yesterday in the Politics section, under the heading "Pensioners and Bedroom Tax".

If any of you are interested/worried enough to want to know more, here is the link to a very informative blog:

speye.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/pensioners-hit-by-75m-bedroom-tax-this-year/

gillybob our council ran a similar scheme for people wanting to downsize to smaller properties and it was very successful,a large proportion where living in 2/3 bed flats which where completly modernised and let to families with older children.As and when houses where available they where given the oppportunity of applying for them and so keeping the housing stock allocated to those who need it.
bluebell I live in a one bed apartment and the space is not a problem it depends on how you furnish it really,I have all my cupboards in my kitchen in order the same in the bedroom,you just don't tend to hoard stuff I find and it makes for an easy life so much easier to clean and do housework,washing is hung on a wirley thingy in the garden and if wet on a fold down maiden,I also have a tumble dryer if anything is urgent,I love my flat it is modern spacious and bright the envy of alot of my friends.

I wonder what I would do if I were the person who had to make a decision about this. On the one hand there are people who have lived in a home for many years and brought up their family there and are part of the community. On the other there are many families who do not have a proper home to live in. I am rather glad I don't have to make that decision.

Perhaps moving young families where no one is employed to another area where housing is available is not such a bad idea. They will soon make friends with others, we did several times. I don't suggest forcing them but if they had the choice and took it why not? Maybe a new start might help them get a job.

Having read about it yesterday I woke at 3.00 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep.I've checked on the DWP website and this is what it says:

Under the existing system, people over the qualifying age for Pension Credit can also receive Housing Benefit and Tax Credits but from around a year after the launch of Universal Credit, they will no longer be able to apply for these benefits. At this point, Pension Credit will be changed to include:
•
a new element called Housing Credit, for pensioners who are eligible for support with rent
•
an additional amount for dependent children in the Guarantee Credit element.
The draft regulations for Universal Credit were published on 15 June 2012. These provide that where one member of a couple is over the qualifying age for State Pension Credit, but their partner is below the qualifying age for claiming Pension Credit, then benefit support will be available through Universal Credit and not Pension Credit.
The DWP in conjunction with the Social Security Advisory Committee has invited comments on the Universal Credit - Draft Regulations 2012 by 27 July 2012.
The date from which this change will take effect has yet to be confirmed but it will be no earlier than October 2013. Existing ‘mixed age’ couples who are already receiving Pension Credit when this change is introduced will be protected.

Apologies for cutting and pasting but this makes it very clear. [http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-faqs.pdf]

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We are moving at the weekend back to our flood damaged flat (rented and two bedrooms). This is becoming more nightmarish by the week. [anxious]