Housing Benefit for under 25s

So you're assuming that all GN members were affluent members of society by the time they were 35, with jobs, houses, husbands etc. and that none of us can possibly empathise with a low-paid person of the same age...?

(Hollow laugh)

And it really has nothing to do with this thread. Why did I answer that (duh)

You're right, of course, Gracesgran.

Sympathy or empathy for the plight of single 35 year olds who do not earn enough to live in a place of their own?

Struggling with a 15% mortgage in London where we really did not want to be.

I'm afraid I am beginning to feel that the system that told people they could draw out even if they had paid nothing or little in that has helped to change these expectations Ana.

What's that got to do with anything, durhamjen?

Sorry, I was referring to your previous post, nidirect, rose.
The Shelter reference from rose is for single people up to 35, who are only allowed benefit for a room in a shared house.
What were you all doing when you were 35?

Or a grotty bedsit, as I did. It's expectations that have changed over the years.

Rose, that's out of date. The government stopped EMA in England. You can still get it in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Many young people live in shared accommodation - in fact most of us did if we were not living with parents or with a partner.

And this explains it

england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/what_is_housing_benefit/housing_benefit_for_young_people

Ana, I said that on page 1.

You obviously did not understand what I meant, Gracesgran.
The legal age for becoming adult is supposed to be 18. But now between the ages of 18 and 25 people will not be given adult protection if they need social housing. They do not have an adult minimum wage until they are 21, therefore if they are on the minimum wage they cannot afford to live anywhere but with their parents, if they have any.

Therefore I repeat what I said; we need as a society to decide when adulthood begins. It is not my ideas that are hurting them.

www.nidirect.gov.uk/benefits-for-young-people

Is this more up-to-date?

Are you in a time-warp, Jess?

I've just realised that the OP's link is actually dated June 2012 - hardly current!

I think we need to decide when adulthood begins.

I am sorry to say durhamjen but I think some of your ideas actually hurt the people you want to help. We have a legal age when people take on adult responsibilities for their actions. Are you suggesting we change that?

Other than the legal position, we grow toward adulthood from day one. If we have a supportive family it helps but if you don't there is really no choice but to learn for ourselves.

Jess's OP was about those who cannot for one reason or another.

And that is quite right. A caring society should care for those who, for one reason or another, are unable to live at home with parents, such as I mentioned in an earlier post.

However, it is not the duty of the government to act in loco parentis for young people up to the age of 25 who make it a life-style choice to live on their own.

I lived in digs when I was first in London aged 19- salary 11.50- digs with breakfast 7.50! Would kids these days agree to spend that % on accommodation = no money for anything else apart from survival food?
Same for the room I shared with a nurse after that- only £5.00 each- no breakfast of course...

Then we lived in a filthy, cold, damp flat - which cost us a huge amount and could not afford to heat (only gas fire in the lounge which had to be fed with 50p pieces- it cost us almost all OH's salary (I was recovering from severe accident). We then lived in a room 8ft by 5ft- with a sink and a single 2'5 bed. Then in a room in the attic of a Victorian Hospital in Stoke- until we were able to buy a small semi which we furnished with banana boxes, a home-made bed base and home-made bean bags and second hand old stuff. Nobody handed us anything on a plate, that is for sure.

I think we need to decide when adulthood begins.
Employers ought to have to pay anyone over 18 enough to be able to pay their rent before housing benefit can be taken away from them.
How can we expect people under 25 to behave as adults when they are not treated as such?

I do think that businesses could well be employing - and training - more young people. They have a responsibility to society as well, it is not just the responsibility of government.

Well said.

Interesting point, Granjura, about teenage pregnancies. The country which has the greatest number is the US which has the greatest inequality. It even works within states there. The state with the greatest inequality has the highest number of teenage pregnancy.
The countries with the fewest teenage pregnancies are the Scandinavian countries. Make of that what you will.

It wasn't just living in an ordinary house, though. We had the equivalent of a three roomed flat, as they lived in an old Victorian terraced house with three floors and seven bedrooms. It would probably be condemned now, but they sold it to a housing association which turned it into bedsits for 16-18 year olds coming out of care.

Most young people carry on living with their parents until they have enough money to move out. It's just being part of a normal family.
Jess's OP was about those who cannot for one reason or another.
If my parents had had the sort of house that many people live in, we would not have been able to live there.
By the way, I was 17 when I got married and had my first son.

dJen We lived with my parents until my first son was nearly a year old.

which is exactly what a lot of posters on here are suggesting.
Not necessarily a young couple with a baby but certainly young single people until they manage to get on their feet.

I lived in 'digs' at first when I left home as I knew no-one in the city where I moved to. I don't seem to hear much about digs these days.