Changes to Housing benefit how much will rents fall?

chewmylegoff

ukcarper wrote: »

After a quick search I see there are quite a few parts of London where LHA for a 3-bed house is £300 or less.

there are plenty of places in london that you can rent a 3 bed for less than £300. you probably wouldn't choose to live there if you didn't have to, but then lots of working families have to put up with living in those areas as they can't afford anything better, so there really isn't any reason why people on benefits shouldn't have to do the same.

Silverbull

ukcarper wrote: »

As pinkteapot asked on the other thread.

“Anyone actually know what percentage of London's 7.5m odd people are actually living purely on benefits? And how many of those will be affected by the cap on total benefits claimed

As what percentage of tenants are on full LHA has a big bearing on what will happen.

Do not know that that is relevant.

A more relevant question would be how many households are currently getting more than say 250wk housing benefit and council tax benefit all together.

It doesnt matter if they are working, retired, sick or disabled or unemployed.

I think the number is very high, all these will almost certainly have to move to cheaper areas away from London.

So to ask "what percentage of London's 7.5m odd people are actually living purely on benefits?" is not relevant.

ukcarper

Silverbull wrote: »

Do not know that that is relevant.

A more relevant question would be how many households are currently getting more than say 250wk housing benefit and council tax benefit all together.

It doesnt matter if they are working, retired, sick or disabled or unemployed.

I think the number is very high, all these will almost certainly have to move to cheaper areas away from London.

So to ask "what percentage of London's 7.5m odd people are actually living purely on benefits?" is not relevant.

So is asking who get more than £250 you assume you cant live on £250 a week, I don’t agree. But as you don’t even know the answer to your question you can’t know what the effect on house prices will be.

Silverbull

ukcarper wrote: »

So is asking who get more than £250 you assume you cant live on £250 a week, I don’t agree. But as you don’t even know the answer to your question you can’t know what the effect on house prices will be.

As was said on the other thread, yes some will choose to live on less than £250 a week. But they would be better off moving away so it seems most will choose to move away from London so they keep more benefit and have a little higher standard of living.

Why £250 a week? It seems most families get about £100+ child tax credit and then either £100+ working tax credit or JSA per week. Plus child benefit 2 or 3 kids would be about £40-£50wk.

So if their rent and council tax come to more than £250 wk then they will be losing their other benefits and would be better off moving outside London.

So I wonder again hoe many households are getting more than £250 a week housing and council tax benefit at the moment? I would guess that its a lot in London but hardly any outside London unless they have several kids.

ukcarper

Silverbull wrote: »

As was said on the other thread, yes some will choose to live on less than £250 a week. But they would be better off moving away so it seems most will choose to move away from London so they keep more benefit and have a little higher standard of living.

Why £250 a week? It seems most families get about £100+ child tax credit and then either £100+ working tax credit or JSA per week. Plus child benefit 2 or 3 kids would be about £40-£50wk.

So if their rent and council tax come to more than £250 wk then they will be losing their other benefits and would be better off moving outside London.

So I wonder again hoe many households are getting more than £250 a week housing and council tax benefit at the moment? I would guess that its a lot in London but hardly any outside London unless they have several kids.

I'm not sure that people will want to move out of London, they may have no choice. They might try to move to cheaper parts of London but I doubt that there is enough available property in those areas. Prices in the Southeast are very close to prices in the cheaper parts of London and it is not awash with available property there, as I’ve said it will be very interesting.

With regards to the £250 don’t you think they might sacrifice some of that to stay in London?

To be honest I don’t know what the mindset of a person who is happy to be on benefits forever is and I suspect you don’t. So we can’t say for sure what they will do.

Silverbull

ukcarper wrote: »

I'm not sure that people will want to move out of London, they may have no choice. They might try to move to cheaper parts of London but I doubt that there is enough available property in those areas. Prices in the Southeast are very close to prices in the cheaper parts of London and it is not awash with available property there, as I’ve said it will be very interesting.

With regards to the £250 don’t you think they might sacrifice some of that to stay in London?

To be honest I don’t know what the mindset of a person who is happy to be on benefits forever is and I suspect you don’t. So we can’t say for sure what they will do.

You are right we do not know what people will decide.

But if I were a betting man I would put money on the majority of people choosing to pay less of their 500wk on rent and council tax than paying most of it to live in London.

ukcarper

Silverbull wrote: »

You are right we do not know what people will decide.

But if I were a betting man I would put money on the majority of people choosing to pay less of their 500wk on rent and council tax than paying most of it to live in London.

Where do you think they will move to. I live 30 miles from London and a 3bed would cost you £250 a week here.

Silverbull

ukcarper wrote: »

Where do you think they will move to. I live 30 miles from London and a 3bed would cost you £250 a week here.

As was said before it need to be far away from London. Wales or something.

Interesting times.

drc

When do the changes actually come into effect? Will it be at the beginning of the new tax year in early April 2011? If so, people have 5.5 months to start evaluating their situations.

ukcarper

Silverbull wrote: »

As was said before it need to be far away from London. Wales or something.

Interesting times.

I wonder what the Welsh would think of that.