Housing Benefit Families Pocket £26,000-Plus As Excessive Claims Continue To Rise

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282969/Housing-benefit-families-pocket-26-000-plus-excessive-claims-continue-rise.html

Thousands of families are raking in housing benefit worth more than £26,000 per year, according to an analysis of the welfare system.

A total of 3,400 people are receiving the bumper handouts - the equivalent to having an interest-only mortgage worth around £650,000.

The study, based on Treasury figures, shows that families are allowed to claim up to a maximum of £94,000 a year - or £1,800 a week - to live in a five-bedroom property in Central London.

I know these are extreme cases but that living room is better than mine, I mean why bother working when you can live like that. Hardly a incentive to get of your off your backside and work.

Edited June 1, 2010 by interestrateripoff

[righttoleech]

Sometimes it is better not to know the degree to which we are being shafted.

Revolution arrives when the injustice is so great that a significant number would rather perish themselves than see this crap continue.

[ChadzKhan]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282969/Housing-benefit-families-pocket-26-000-plus-excessive-claims-continue-rise.html

I know these are extreme cases but that living room is better than mine, I mean why bother working when you can live like that. Hardly a incentive to get of your off your backside and work.

Mine too, I was debating these issues with a mate he calmly looked at me and said "if the system does not work for you, change yourself to make it work for you as you have no control over the system". I think that time is getting closer!!!

[interestrateripoff]

Mine too, I was debating these issues with a mate he calmly looked at me and said "if the system does not work for you, change yourself to make it work for you as you have no control over the system". I think that time is getting closer!!!

I am wondering if it would be better for me to divorce the wife, I think then we'd then qualify for free school meals, lower council tax and Christ knows what else.

The system is perverse, it merely now helps to lock people into the benefit system with no possibility of escape unless they lend a job say with a starting salary of £40k or something just as ridiculous.

[The Floating World]

A small number of claimants are going to receive very large amounts of HB if they live in central London and live in large privately rented properties.

Check out the link to see the LHA rates for all local authorities.

https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=LA

Central London rates are obviously ridiculously high. In order to qualify for the five bedroom rate of LHA you would need to have at least 5 people in the family all aged over 16 if of the same sex. The criteria for rooms is that an adult couple need a bedroom, two children of the same sex can share a bedroom until 16, children of opposite sexes can share up to the age of 10. In practice this will mean most households that qualify will have eight to ten members if not more.

As most long term benefit claimants will not have the requisite deposit to secure a 5 bedroom property in central London, i.e. £20,000.00, it should be clear that these claimants have been placed on an emergency basis by their local authorities homelessness department. Local Authorities have a statutory duty to house homeless people (not the intentionally homeless, though). As most local authorities in the south east and London in particular have no vacant L.A. housing stock available they are forced to pay market rents to discharge their duty and consequently house large families in very expensive accommodation.

If Local Authorities had been able to continue to construct and effectively maintain housing stock over the last thirty years this would not be such an issue.

[plummet expert]

Mine too, I was debating these issues with a mate he calmly looked at me and said "if the system does not work for you, change yourself to make it work for you as you have no control over the system". I think that time is getting closer!!!

IT IS DISGRACEFUL AND A FRAUD ON ALL TAXPAYERS TO ALLOW IT. It is better than my living room too!

When the cuts come they had better include sensible chnges to welfare. Mr Duncan-Smith would have more supporters than he realises. I don't mean 'make 'em starve', but proper and reasonable changes. You should not be able to rent homes for £1800pw when there is no work you could ever do to pay for that. It should be homes that are modest. Kids should have to share rooms just as other people put up with.

[OnlyMe]

Most families don't have childern until they can afford to bring them up and house them.

[Guest BetterOffOnBenefits]

Jobless people should be shipped out to wherever the housing is cheapest.

They should be at the back of the queue, not the front!

I can't afford to rent in the city in which I work, so I have to commute 20 in. The irony being that if I chucked in my job, they'd house me in the very city in which I have no job to go to!

Lots of angry mail readers but how many will write to their MP. I'm pretty sure complaining on the mail comments page will achieve zilch.

[billybong]

The new Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has warned that hundreds of thousands now have little hope of ever getting off benefits.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282969/Housing-benefit-families-pocket-26-000-plus-excessive-claims-continue-rise.html#ixzz0pbCqSWeX

You've got to laugh.

Who would ever want to "get off benefits" at those sort of rates. Most will be doing their level best to stay on them.

[Bloo Loo]

allthis hoo haa and yet, fall behind on your overstretched mortgage and the government ponies up 6.4% or so, regardless of what you are paying.

and have only £16K in savings and you get no HB at all.

[billybong]

Why don't struggling students get help? The people who are actually trying to make something of their lives? This country is bent! Why can't someone do something about it?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282969/Housing-benefit-families-pocket-26-000-plus-excessive-claims-continue-rise.html#ixzz0pbHEkKbc

Because when at "Uni" they're performing their role and keeping the unemployment figures low and unemployment benefit down, keeping University lecturers and staff in work, keeping University builders in work and helping the banks keep their lending figures up and so on - all in the slim hope that they will eventually earn more in their lifetimes than otherwise unqualified people. A statistic that probably was true when everyone didn't have a degree and when large numbers of imported workers weren't so prevalent.

Edited June 1, 2010 by billybong

[Lone_Twin]

Mine too, I was debating these issues with a mate he calmly looked at me and said "if the system does not work for you, change yourself to make it work for you as you have no control over the system". I think that time is getting closer!!!

Shrug

[ken_ichikawa]

I know these are extreme cases but that living room is better than mine,

You have a living room? La De Dah aren't we posh?

[Guest BetterOffOnBenefits]

How did they get that photo?

"Excuse me sir, we're running a story on immigrants in receipt of obscene amounts of benefit, can you smile at the camera please?"

[The Floating World]

allthis hoo haa and yet, fall behind on your overstretched mortgage and the government ponies up 6.4% or so, regardless of what you are paying.

and have only £16K in savings and you get no HB at all.

You know that you can only get Support for Mortgage Interest if you are in receipt of means-tested Jobseekers Allowance(IB), Income Support or Employment Support Allowance (IR) or Guaranteed Pension Credit. You are also limited to two years of claiming if you are in receipt of JSA and made your claim after January 2009. You also have to wait three months from claiming until you are eligible to receive it.

It is only paid on mortgage interest.

It is unusual that it is fixed at the moment since Jan. 2009, which benefits people on tracker mortgages, however the majority will be SVR which won't be much below the rate currently used, 6.08%. I believe the rate got fixed to reduce admin. expenses.

[Bloo Loo]

You know that you can only get Support for Mortgage Interest if you are in receipt of means-tested Jobseekers Allowance(IB), Income Support or Employment Support Allowance (IR) or Guaranteed Pension Credit. You are also limited to two years of claiming if you are in receipt of JSA and made your claim after January 2009. You also have to wait three months from claiming until you are eligible to receive it.

It is only paid on mortgage interest.

It is unusual that it is fixed at the moment since Jan. 2009, which benefits people on tracker mortgages, however the majority will be SVR which won't be much below the rate currently used, 6.08%. I believe the rate got fixed to reduce admin. expenses.

I beleive you can also get support if your income has dropped.

I have no idea how one would claim.

a previous Prime Minister said 350,000 hard working families had been helped.

[The Floating World]

No, you have to be on a means-tested benefit such as the ones I listed, which means that you are either unemployed, ill or retired.

In any case you have to have a very low income as the means-test is set at a low level corresponding to your circumstances.

It isn't a lifestyle choice.

Funny that most people who have never claimed benefits have the idea that they are bountiful, and as soon as they find themselves having to claim are outraged that they aren't. I remember a few threads last year where this was the case.

Edited for spelling and to add a little extra.

Edited June 1, 2010 by The Floating World

[Guest BetterOffOnBenefits]

No, you have to be on a means-tested benefit such as the ones I listed, which means that you are either unemployed, ill or retired.

In any case you have to have a very low income as the means-test is set at a low level corresponding to your circumstances.

It isn't a lifestyle choice.

Funny that most people who have never claimed benefits have the idea that they are bountiful, and as soon as they find themselves having to claim are outraged that they aren't. I remember a few threads last year where this was the case.

Edited for spelling and to add a little extra.

It depends on many factors.

N0 savings + lots of kids = happy daze.

Single + no kids + savigs = sit there and rot

[The Floating World]

It depends on many factors.

N0 savings + lots of kids = happy daze.

Single + no kids + savigs = sit there and rot

Do you have children. They're not free and cost a lost more than the few thousand you can get off the government when you claim benefits.

I know there are a few instances of people neglecting their children and seeing them as a source of income, but this is only a small minority.

[munro]

Why isn't the Wail headline "Massive scam as tax payers support parasite landlords through HB scheme" or something similar? Ahh, that'll be because the Wail demographic wants to be rentier class. Who'd work for a living when they all they have to do is stitch together a properdee portfolio somehow or other and let it out to HB claimants? That's the life, innit. No signing on and dealing with nasty Jobcentre people, no proving you're looking for work, no worries about the kids turning 16 and finding you're not eligible anymore. Just keep raking it in as the government willingly presses hard-earned taxpayers' cash into your pockets. You don't even need to get pregnant and risk the stretch marks.

[CrashConnoisseur]

The system is perverse, it merely now helps to lock people into the benefit system with no possibility of escape unless they lend a job say with a starting salary of £40k or something just as ridiculous.

They should become an MP. Then they could claim room rent at TWICE the Housing Benefit LHA rate and some posters on here would describe it as "very very cheap" and "good value for the taxpayer".

[Guest Mrs Bradley]

Do you have children. They're not free and cost a lost more than the few thousand you can get off the government when you claim benefits.

I know there are a few instances of people neglecting their children and seeing them as a source of income, but this is only a small minority.

How do you know that the instances are few, or just how few they are? Granted they prob'ly ARE a minority, but minorities can eat into a budget -whether domestic or national, and 'making fish of one and fowl of t'other' is not a good way to run a country, or do you disagree?

The DM like many other rags thrives on controversy. This does not make it untrue or wicked. Just selling newspapers. The real crime is that many folks would like to apply for London jobs but can't afford London house prices - bought or rented. Why should someone coming here with no work to come to, have pride of place in the heart of the capital?

"I" would like to see London shows and be near enough to London to be able to afford to stay the night or drive in. I have worked all my life but still am caught in the 'poverty trap' due to living north of B'rum all my life.

Praps I should leave and come in again and plead poverty..Nah screw that. My childless friend left the UK and was gone only 12 months, having worked full time for 40 years - she and her hubby. Got diddly squat when she returned after having made a bad investment due to bad professional advice. She sure made a BIG mistake contributing to the' pot' here for 40 years.

No matter how bad it gets no one in the UK will rise up and create havoc.. Too fond of whinging on I/Net forums or crying into their beer at the local pub. Which is why we will continue to be exploited and why them wot don't like it, will emigrate to a place where you get what you work for. The obvious conclusion is that the UK will eventually consist of scroungers and those unable to emigrate - due either to age, ill-health or inability to work - none of whom will be contributing a whole lot to the pot.

Who TF is going to pay the politicians and the bills, one hastens to ask?

Any guesses for how long it will take before we are officially a third World country and of no further interest to those wishing to live offa the backs of others?

Edited June 1, 2010 by Mrs Bradley

[The Floating World]

[/b]How do you know that the instances are few, or just how few they are? Granted they prob'ly ARE a minority, but minorities can eat into a budget -whether domestic or national, and 'making fish of one and fowl of t'other' is not a good way to run a country, or do you disagree?

I can't say for certain how many people may treat their children as a commodity, those sorts of attitudes aren't measured.

The closest you can gauge a social problem like that is to look at the number of children that pass through social services care in a year. Approximately 90,000 children pass through care each year with 60,000 being in care at any one time. The total number of children under 16 years old is approx. 11.5 million. That means about half a percent of all children are taken into care by social services each year.

Seems like a minority to me.

[munro]

No matter how bad it gets no one in the UK will rise up and create havoc.. Too fond of whinging on I/Net forums or crying into their beer at the local pub. Which is why we will continue to be exploited and why them wot don't like it, will emigrate to a place where you get what you work for. The obvious conclusion is that the UK will eventually consist of scroungers and those unable to emigrate - due either to age, ill-health or inability to work - none of whom will be contributing a whole lot to the pot.

Who TF is going to pay the politicians and the bills, one hastens to ask?

Any guesses for how long it will take before we are officially a third World country and of no further interest to those wishing to live offa the backs of others?

Please, please, emigrate. En masse. To these mythical places where the grass is greener, the days longer, the skies bluer, the taxes lower. Only please also promise not to come back when you are old. If lots and lots of people could leave and take their over-rated work ethic with them then maybe the rest of us could get some peace and quiet and there wouldn't be this endless push by developers to cover every piece of "empty" land in the SE with Barratt boxes.

[SarahBell]

I beleive you can also get support if your income has dropped.

I have no idea how one would claim.

a previous Prime Minister said 350,000 hard working families had been helped.

The lloyds bank mortgage ad says they'll support their mortgagees whatever circumstances change... sounds like twaddle to me...