Homelessness rise 'likely to have been driven by welfare reforms'

East Midlands must be very high, whitewave, because it only went up by 24% in West Midlands.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/west-midlands-metro-mayor-urged-to-prioritise-housing/

Only, eh?

Government is down south, primrose. They are the ones who make the laws that penalise DWP claimants.
You ought to be able to read one post above mine.
Homelessness increased by 55% in the midlands?
Did you not notice that?

www.welfareweekly.com/single-parents-paying-the-price-for-cruel-tory-welfare-policies-says-charity/

This isn't up north, either.

Nasty and vindictive to try to divide and rule, though.

I don't think the UK is a nasty, vindictive country. I think most people are pretty decent actually.
I know it's grim up North dj but I didn't realise it was that bad!

A nasty vindictive country run by a nasty vindictive government.

Watching "ambulance" last night. My heart goes out to all the poor. Homelessness has risen by 55% in the past two years in the Midlands.

Mental health is a disaster.

What sort of country are we becoming?

The labour market conundrum is puzzling the experts, too, whitewave.
In normal times wages do rise when there is near full employment. It seems to me that there is only near full employment because there are too many non-jobs being counted in the employment figures.

At least there are only 3 pages so far on mine, whitewave.
At 30 I would have asked for a clue.

I seem to have only read page 1

petra supply and demand is too simplistic to describe what is happening to the housing market.

To that equation you have to put in land holding/grabbing, foreign ownership/absent owners. Government refusal to allow LAs to build social housing. Depressed salaries.
The list is endless. The job equation is entirely wrong in your example. When there is full employment and firms continue to expand, your supply and demand equation would mean that they pay higher wages to attract labour. You have turned it on its head. Of course we know that this hasn't happened because of the continual supply of workers willing to labour for relatively low wages.

I've calmed down a bit now. Anyway, I've no idea where the nearest jobcentre is now, that many of them are closing down, so you can hang on to your money for the time being.

This is quite disturbing. It shows how impossible it is to be a single parent these days.

www.welfareweekly.com/single-parents-paying-the-price-for-cruel-tory-welfare-policies-says-charity/

A third in debt.
2/3rds find it difficult to manage on the money they have.
Half run out of money before the end of the month.

I'll chip in too for the bail GG

40,000 a year when Labour left power.
Fewer than 1000 last year.

Did anyone see Sarah Beeny on Daily Politics the other day. She was trying to explain that we do, indeed, has enough housing but it isn't where the work is. Her suggestion was carrot and stick encouragement to get business to move to where the housing is. It seemed to make a lot of sense to me (and always has done) but the two 'guest' politicians, one an MP and one a Councilor if I remember rightly, were far more interested in keeping control over housing in their own hands - very disappointing.

my.labourlist.org/page/m/2c9aecae/13fa0d4e/63a77345/34ad0cbe/644271874/VEsHBQ/

Another reason for homelessness. No social houses being built.

Sorry, Auditor, to be truly accurate.

Before that it was the Aiditor of the Exchequer in 1314, if you want to be truly accurate.
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1983/44/contents

It didn't become the NAO until 1983, did it?
That's what I said.

The Thatcher government set up the National Audit Office in 1983, with the idea of supporting Tory ideals.

Actually the NAO was not "created" in 1983 - it existed as the "Exchequer & Audit Department" from 1866 to 1983. It was part of Thatchers policy of reducing red tape and civil servants - but the only thing that the staff working there noticed new headed notepaper and better recognition for the qualified accountants.

NAO publications were always fairly bland because they are required to agree them with the departments being audited. More critical and detailed evaluations were done by the Audit Commission until it was abolished by the Cameron Government in 2015 and their duties passed to the private sector.

Thanks, GracesGran.

Although we could crowdfund your bail I think it better if you didn't but I agree living with the madness of this government is pushing people to their limit of tolerance.

www.welfareweekly.com/paralysed-woman-told-to-find-work-after-husband-forgot-jobcentre-appointment/

This definitely makes me feel like throwing bricks through jobcentre windows.

It's horrible Jen. They need to take the housing out of the Universal Credit until there are enough houses.

evolvepolitics.com/4-out-of-5-people-transferred-onto-new-tory-universal-credit-benefit-are-now-facing-eviction-shocking-new-cab-report-shows/
This is very worrying, although I am sure Rees-Mogg will find it another reason to feel uplifted.

You would have thought Jess, that everyone could agree that the main pressure on housing, house prices and rents is a lack of houses.

The people who asked the question are very prejudiced but in a sort of brain-washed way; the sort of brain-washing done by the DM and so called MSN that pops up on computers. They always need someone to blame. They blame people who claim benefits for the position they are in and where they can they blame those who are ill for their lifestyle.

But don't blame them. They may own their own house but they are not rich and are probably only one disaster away being in the same position as the people they blame and if you decide the other person created the situation you can believe you are in control. We can all do it. I just hope I recognise that I am doing it if it happens and that it is just a comfort blanket. They are not bad people but those who persuade them that 'the other' is to blame certainly are in my mind.