Getting a council house! is it possible anymore?

blue_monkey_2

Sorry, I thought PC has crashed and did not realise it had posted so I'll finish off.

Please do not think you can 'hide' or 'lie' they checked everything when we went to them. They had almost a years worth of wage slips, bank statments, tax credit statments, etc... so much info had to be given I really do lose track. They will check, if you lie you'll get chucked off the list.

Times have changed and your BIL got lucky, he has a secure tenancy now but we are on 1 year unsecure tenancy, if we are bad neighbours, do not pay the rent, they find we lied about our situation, then we are out after the year. After this one year they will give us a secure tenancy. This is all I wanted tbh and I would have paid £1000 a month for this, because of my son.

Apply to go on all the lists possible for HA in your area and also the area where your husband works - he has ties to the area through employment. Look on Google and seek out every single Housing Association going and apply. You can never apply to too many. What you might want someone else might not want. But you will get a 2 bed, possibly a flat. If they offer it you cannot turn it down, if you turn it down you'll go back down the list for a bit.

If you look on your local Council websites under housing it will tell you who the local HA are, call them all, even if it says the lists are closed - and then look in the areas surrounding your areas. Just before we was about to be evicted I found another HA to take us but it was too late. We found one HA based 200 miles away had 2 houses local to where we were, which is a bit weird but just goes to show you. But keep on looking as you never know what is around and which HA has which stock and there might just be that one house coming up that no-one else wants. Call them all and apply to them all. Because you never know.

So all is not perfect and lovely, there are drawbacks with everything. You might think 'yey' cheap housing but add on the costs of decoarating, carpets, furniture, etc... and it soon mounts up. If you apply for a house with points and then refuse it after looking, you'll get penalised for this.

I hope this helps. I keep hitting the wron button and it keeps on knocking me out. If I think of anything helpful I will post a reply.

At the moment everyone is in the same situation as having no money, my 'rich' friends are flogging their stuff on eBay, people you think have money and are well off are telling their friends that the mortgage has gone up again or something else has happened. You have to get through these times as best as you can and tighten your belts, what matters is that you come out the other side as a family unit. You have tough times, you have good times and sometimes you make sacrifices to get through the bad times. That's life. People on benefits will still have to pay the higher foods costs, gas and electric prices, etc... while there are some playing the system there are also many that are not and are living hand to mouth.

Just apply and see what happens but do not lie, they will find out and then you'll have no chance. And what would the point in that be??

I think more than anything families need security, not to know that they are going to have to move every 6 months. This to me seems the most important thing. I know of one little grl of 7 who moved 7 times in 4 years as leases ran out and the family had to move. How can this be a life for her, leaving friends and a house she has just got to know, again. How can she feel secure and I feel that children need a place they can call home. As adults we can deal with the moving around, but is it right for children? She also has terrible behaviour problems. Are the 2 things related? I guess we will never know but FAMILIES need security and the current way landlords give a 6 month tenancy does not do this - and maybe this is what needs to change rather than the rents (which you can get benefits for anyhow).

SingleSue

Good post Blue Monkey, I remember reading (and contributing to) your thread when you was really going through the mill.

Like you, sometimes I don't think people realise how lucky they are not to have disabilities or to have someone very close to them to have disabilities. It is a never ending job and is life restricting not only to the person with the disability but to those who care for them.

I have just come back from yet another appointment for my middle son and after feeling so positive about the future and working towards going back to work (and almost achieving the right level required), I have now been informed by the local health and educations authorities that I should forget about all that, put my life on hold for at least the next year and concentrate on the needs of my children and stop being selfish....I only want to go to work for crying out loud and get back some self respect!

I was never a mumsy mum, always a career woman but was quite prepared to devote myself to child rearing with a view to be working full time by the time they went to high school (I had been working part time until me and my hubby split) and now with children aged 15, nearly 12 and 10 and a half, I expect some kind of life outside of the home...apparently not. Don't get me wrong, I love my children and would never be without them but I also want some kind of life, some kind of self respect and to be paying my own way.

So in the meantime, I run around like a headless chicken after the children going from appointment to appointment and having to stay on income support while at the same time in the views of quite a few people, I am tax wasting scum.

skylight

I agree with BlueMonkey about the "fibbing" bit. Its difficult to do.

Here you have to prove everything - pregnant? MATB1 or you are not recognised as being pregnant. Health issues? Doctors certificates/letters etc are only acceptable, not a statement from the applicant claiming they are a bit stressed because of it all. Here you even have to provide proof of all on the application form and who will be moving with you etc. You cannot claim you have more adults living with you now as the council check against the electoral role and if your not on it, then its not acceptable on your application.

Fibbing is not as easy as you think it is. Its daft to do so. You will be knocked back to the bottom of a very long list if they discover you are lying. You will just have to wait like the rest of us.

blue_monkey_2

I know what you mean SS, mine is done when the kids are in bed or at school. But it gives me a break from the depressing day to day stuff, especially if DS is having a bad day. I used to get annoyed when he was getting me up in the middle of the night but I've learned and I do the ironing now. I feel a huge sense of achievment when my husband comes down to go to work and I've done a huge pile and have tidied the whole of the downstairs, LOL!!

Mind you, I have had to ask permission from the HA to start working from home, they have granted me this as long as I do not disrupt the nieghbours.

If I did not work from home - and it was purely something I fell into by accident - I do not know what I would do as most of my housework is done by the time hubby gets up to go to work!

Your time will come Sue, I guess you are just going to have to wait a little longer, but I can totally understand your frustrations. Is there something you can do from home at all? I had a healthcare worker around last week and she was here for almost 3 hours - and she is back again this week, amongst all the appointments recently there would not be time for a 'proper' job anyhow, I have to go on a parenting class as it is the only way CAMHS will see him without the school exclusing him for violence (!!) but everything she suggested in the way of parenting we already do. Life is one long lesson, LOL!! BM xx

(Sorry for the O/T post)

poppysarah

neas wrote: »

Maybe if we didnt pay such large taxes to put up people in subsidised accomoadtion private accomodation wouldn't seem so expensive?

Good answer? :P

5 years ago a house on my street was 40k. It's now 120k. Private landlords charge massive amounts of rent on these propertys compared to the council houses.

If house prices hadn't gone up then there's be no need for LHA to be so inflated either.

SingleSue

To keep it off topic :rotfl:

Blue Money

I have looked at trying to do something at home but so far no luck (it would be a dream job if I could!) My skills are more office based than practical work and to work from home in those are very few and far between. That was why I set upon the idea of working in a term time job so that it would fit in with the children (and as some of the appointments had lessened) so to that end, started volunteering at a special needs playgroup to get the relevant experience (In Feb) and doing an ECDL to cover term based education authority office jobs but even now this idea is being hit on the head by others.

I know my time will come but I am not getting any younger and with every grey hair that arrives on my head is a reminder that the years are passing me by and I have so much that I could give to an employer that it just frustrates me so much.

With regards the parenting course, I can give you some tips if you like...I have been through every one imaginable over the years and behaviour management is my speciality, I was even asked by social services to run a help group based on it! Mind you, make sure any parenting/behaviour management course they send you on is specifically for a child with ASD, any other ones are not worth a toffee.

blue_monkey_2

Thanks Sue, the woman left saying that I was doing a good job, there was no other advice she could offer but without that course I cannot get into CAMHS and I've not heard anything from the Communication Disorders Clinic (very long wait for that one!!).

I am sorry to hear about the problem with getting the jobs, I do understand what you mean.

I am not sure what to suggest in regard to homeworking, could you advertise for Data Entry, letter writing etc.. if you have been office based? Maybe set up some little business or something to people who might want to outsource? That way there would be no outlay as such but it might help the small business who is struggling. That would then be something else to put on your CV. Don't take offence at the suggestion, I was just thinking out loud.

I did read something on the 'Up Your Income' board a while back about a working at home job.... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=378166 Is that of any use I mean, could you.....

SingleSue

Ooooo errrrrrrrr :rotfl: :eek:

I have actually thought about data entry from home and have been trying to search around the internet for something similar to it but had no luck at all.....always open to offers though! (Not offers for my body though I hasten to add..not that anyone would want it anyway!:rotfl: )

neverdespairgirl

blue_monkey wrote: »

If I did not work from home - and it was purely something I fell into by accident - I do not know what I would do as most of my housework is done by the time hubby gets up to go to work!

You could always pop round here, plenty to keep you busy :T

neverdespairgirl

SingleSue wrote: »

My skills are more office based than practical work and to work from home in those are very few and far between.

If you are a good typist, what about digital dictation?