Housing benefit bill rises to nearly £20 billion.

captainhaggis

bambam101 wrote: »

We're in the middle of a recession, with people being made redundant and being laid off, what did you all expect - for housing benefit payments to go down!

Fair point :cool:

bambam101 wrote: »

And its still a small figure compared to what we've baled out the banks with, after they played casino economics with all our pension funds.

Everyone in this country has a vested interest in ensuring the UK boasts a stable banking system. I don't like that we've thrown such vast sums of money at the fu*kwits in The City but at the end of the day atleast the government stands to gain, in the long run, from those investments.

To compare the money we're spending on bailing out the banks to the amount we're spending on housing people, some of whom have never tried to do that for themselves, is really like comparing apples with oranges.

michaels

I believe that is the value of liabilities that the govt has taken on to it s books - the latest estimate for losses (depending on the eventual value of the bank stakes) is estimated to be 10bn.

bambam101 wrote: »

I agree it had to be done to save the banks from sinking and us the country with it. But it cost us £850 billion (so far), and most of this damage was caused by 5000 people who work in one square mile of central london. So compared to paying housing benefit to millions of people, I know which makes my blood boil more.

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/finance/taxpayer-bank-bail-out-has-cost-850-billion-$1344998.htm