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Struggling to pay your rent? Shelter needs your help!

Shelter_Ross
Shelter_Ross Posts: 5 Organisation Representative
edited 22 May 2017 at 9:51AM in House buying, renting & selling
Hi everyone,

I work for Shelter – the national housing and homelessness charity. At Shelter we know that there are a huge number of people on low incomes struggling to pay their rent each month, borrowing money to pay their bills or unable to save up to buy a house of their own.
These people are the backbone of our country. They’re ordinary working people such as bus drivers, cleaners, teaching assistants or shop workers. Currently, they’re working to pay the rent, rather than live.

That’s why we’re calling on the next Government to build half a million living rent homes which would allow people to live a decent life, not just manage each month.

If you’re working hard but still struggling, cutting back on essentials each month to pay sky-high rents that keep rising, then we want to hear from you. Your stories will help us tell the next Government that they need to act to provide an alternative to our broken system.
We’re going to run a story in the media highlighting the struggles people face so are looking for the following people to tell their stories:

- Single (could be renting in a house share, or in your own place) and not with children
- Earning up to £22,000 a year (could be working part time, in unstable work or full time)
- Not claiming benefits or only claiming in-work benefits (e.g. tax credits)

If you’d be happy to share your story then please do so at the link below.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/share_your_story

And don’t worry, we won’t pass your details to anyone else without your permission. Everything you tell us is confidential, and we won’t use your name unless you agree to it first.

Thanks,
Ross
Official Organisation Representative
I’m the official organisation rep for Shelter.

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Comments

  • pimento
    pimento Posts: 6,239
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    My son (lives in Glasgow) is currently unemployed and looking for work. He's 24 and lives in a flat share where his rent and bills are £380 a month. His Universal Credit is £251.77 and that is to pay for everything, including his rent, bills and food.
    When he asked how he was going to live, he was told to contact his friends or family to help him out.

    It's a scandal.
    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair
  • always_sunny
    always_sunny Posts: 8,314 Forumite
    pimento wrote: »
    My son (lives in Glasgow) is currently unemployed and looking for work. He's 24 and lives in a flat share where his rent and bills are £380 a month. His Universal Credit is £251.77 and that is to pay for everything, including his rent, bills and food.
    When he asked how he was going to live, he was told to contact his friends or family to help him out.

    It's a scandal.

    What is the scandal?
    EU expat working in London
  • Red-Squirrel_2
    Red-Squirrel_2 Posts: 4,341 Forumite
    edited 16 May 2017 at 12:31PM
    What is the scandal?

    That the benefits which are supposed to enable people to survive while out of work are nowhere near enough to cover the cost of a roof over their head and food?
  • Cakeguts
    Cakeguts Posts: 7,627
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    pimento wrote: »
    My son (lives in Glasgow) is currently unemployed and looking for work. He's 24 and lives in a flat share where his rent and bills are £380 a month. His Universal Credit is £251.77 and that is to pay for everything, including his rent, bills and food.
    When he asked how he was going to live, he was told to contact his friends or family to help him out.

    It's a scandal.

    So what you are saying is that your son can't find a minimum wage job in Glasgow to cover his living costs? What about 2 part time minimum wage jobs would that do it?

    Benefits are not there for people to choose the kind of job they want. They are there to help people who can't work because they are ill or disabled.
  • Cakeguts
    Cakeguts Posts: 7,627
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    That the benefits which are supposed to enable people to survive while out of work nowhere near enough to cover the cost of a roof over their head and food?

    Who wants to be a member of the EU and adopt the practices of other European countries in the aspect of benefits because if you do you need to know that in at least one European country there are no benefits for out of work adult children. The parents have to support them.
  • pimento
    pimento Posts: 6,239
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    Cakeguts wrote: »
    So what you are saying is that your son can't find a minimum wage job in Glasgow to cover his living costs? What about 2 part time minimum wage jobs would that do it?

    Benefits are not there for people to choose the kind of job they want. They are there to help people who can't work because they are ill or disabled.

    Wind your neck in.

    He is having trouble finding any kind of job at all, minimum wage included. He has had various temp jobs (all he could find) and has had a couple of dozen interviews and made scores of applications. When he is working (usually for not much more than minimum wage) he is able (just) to keep himself going. He's currently waiting to hear the result of two interviews. He isn't a lazy scrounger. Just a young bloke on his own trying to make his own way.
    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair
  • always_sunny
    always_sunny Posts: 8,314 Forumite
    That the benefits which are supposed to enable people to survive while out of work nowhere near enough to cover the cost of a roof over their head and food?

    There's no 'benefit spring' and it's tax payer funded; the scandal is that a 24 yo chap is not living at home if he's out of work and instead seem to believe others have to fund his lifestyle.

    £380 pcm to live somewhere in Western Europe sounds like a bargain.
    EU expat working in London
  • pimento
    pimento Posts: 6,239
    First Post First Anniversary
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    Cakeguts wrote: »
    ... you need to know that in at least one European country there are no benefits for out of work adult children. The parents have to support them.

    So if I lost my job, my dad would have to keep me? I'm 56 and he's 79...
    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair
  • Red-Squirrel_2
    Red-Squirrel_2 Posts: 4,341 Forumite
    Cakeguts wrote: »
    So what you are saying is that your son can't find a minimum wage job in Glasgow to cover his living costs? What about 2 part time minimum wage jobs would that do it?

    Benefits are not there for people to choose the kind of job they want. They are there to help people who can't work because they are ill or disabled.

    Nowhere in her post does pimento say her son is only looking for the kind of job he wants.

    If it were that easy for everyone to walk into a job, any job, JSA would never have needed to exist in the first place.

    Stuff like this is exactly what's going wrong with attitudes in this country. Do you think you are somehow immune to falling on hard times and needing help?
  • Red-Squirrel_2
    Red-Squirrel_2 Posts: 4,341 Forumite
    There's no 'benefit spring' and it's tax payer funded; the scandal is that a 24 yo chap is not living at home if he's out of work and instead seem to believe others have to fund his lifestyle.

    £380 pcm to live somewhere in Western Europe sounds like a bargain.

    He's 24! He's a grown man! If parents are expected to keep their children till they are 30 maybe they should still be entitled to child benefit and tax credits for that long?
This discussion has been closed.
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