Changes to Housing benefit how much will rents fall?

Housebear51

Councils to move LHA claimants out of London

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-management/councils-to-move-lha-claimants-out-of-london/6512167.article

The worst part is-

Families with children would be forced to remove them from school, and those claiming housing benefit as an in-work benefit would lose their jobs as a result of moving so far away, Mr Minto warned.

ukcarper

MikeMaloney wrote: »

Exactly, they will have to move far away to rent somewhere so that they can keep a sizable portion of their 500 per week to live on.

Take neverdispairgirl for example-




So her rent alone is more than total ben cap.

If her family were on low earnings they would have to move far away from London. If they stayed in London but moved to a cheaper area they would have hardly anything left from the 500 to live on.

It will not take long for families in this position to work out that if they moved to Wales or somewhere then they would be able to have more of their 500wk for living on instead of most of it going to rent and council tax.

I think you will find that not many will move that far if they can still survive where they are.

Shakethedisease

If her family were on low earnings they would have to move far away from London. If they stayed in London but moved to a cheaper area they would have hardly anything left from the 500 to live on.

It will not take long for families in this position to work out that if they moved to Wales or somewhere then they would be able to have more of their 500wk for living on instead of most of it going to rent and council tax.

Shame the job would have to go though..

:silenced:

RDB

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Shame the job would have to go though..

:silenced:

It is a shame many people will have to leave employment in London and become unemployed in cheaper area. But if they can not pay their own way living in London, then to be unemployed in Wales is costing the country less than paying their high London rents and council tax.

Housebear51 wrote: »

Councils to move LHA claimants out of London

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-management/councils-to-move-lha-claimants-out-of-london/6512167.article

The worst part is-

Families with children would be forced to remove them from school, and those claiming housing benefit as an in-work benefit would lose their jobs as a result of moving so far away, Mr Minto warned.

Leaving your job to be unemployed is one thing, but I feel sorry for the kids who will have to start again in new school in cheap areas.

olly300

A family with 3 children or less wouldn't actually have to move out of London to Wales they would need to move to an outer London Borough like Croydon, Hillingdon or Barking and Dagenham.

A couple with a child under 5 could live in a one bedroom flat. Flats can be found in Croydon for £550pcm. If the child was older than 5 years a 2 bedroom flat could be found for £650pcm.

I've met families in council properties living in one bedroom flats with more than one child under 5.

Moving to an outer London borough would mean they could still have family and friends visit them but if either of the couple were working in inner London i.e. zones 1 and 2 they wouldn't be able to afford the peak hour transport costs of the train to get to work so would lose their job.

Yoshua

olly300 wrote: »

A family with 3 children or less wouldn't actually have to move out of London to Wales they would need to move to an outer London Borough like Croydon, Hillingdon or Barking and Dagenham.

A couple with a child under 5 could live in a one bedroom flat. Flats can be found in Croydon for £550pcm. If the child was older than 5 years a 2 bedroom flat could be found for £650pcm.

I've met families in council properties living in one bedroom flats with more than one child under 5.

Moving to an outer London borough would mean they could still have family and friends visit them but if either of the couple were working in inner London i.e. zones 1 and 2 they wouldn't be able to afford the peak hour transport costs of the train to get to work so would lose their job.

Where do you get the 5yr old thing from? Im not saying you are wrong its just I thought it was 10yr old that made a difference.

A couple with 2 kids under 10yrs old would only qualify for a 2 bed. If they are different sexes and one is older than 10yrs then they qualify for 3 bedroom property.

I just do not think you can find a good 3 bed property in London cheap enough.

If this family want to keep the maximum amount of disposable cash to live on out of their £500 benefit cap, then they will have to move away.


This is the point that most do not get, including the commentators who have written those articles.
The £500 total benefits cap will mean most claimants (who are not as dumb as many think) will soon see that if they live in London they will not be able to keep much of their working/child tax credits.

If they move away from London they will be rewarded with more spending cash every week.

Surely no one would choose to stay in London and use up most of their £500 per week on rent and council tax benefit.

They will choose to move, especially with that £20,000,000 fund available to pay for removal companies to do it all for them.

Jowo_2

Housebear51 wrote: »

..Families with children would be forced to remove them from school, and those claiming housing benefit as an in-work benefit would lose their jobs as a result of moving so far away, Mr Minto warned.

To play devil's advocate, those seeking employment opportunities often have to move location to take advantage of them, which means a change of school for their children.

Someone serving in the Armed Forces can uproot their kids every 2 to 3 years. So too for Vicars and other types of employment where regular moves are the norm.

If the claimants are working and claiming LHA, then they can choose a location away from central London, for example, with transport links to their employer, such as being on a good train, tube, tram or bus route.

Watford, for example, is about 20 mins by train or 30 mins by tube into central London. Reading about 25 minutes to Paddington.

ukcarper

Jowo wrote: »

To play devil's advocate, those seeking employment opportunities often have to move location to take advantage of them, which means a change of school for their children.

Someone serving in the Armed Forces can uproot their kids every 2 to 3 years. So too for Vicars and other types of employment where regular moves are the norm.

If the claimants are working and claiming LHA, then they can choose a location away from central London, for example, with transport links to their employer, such as being on a good train, tube, tram or bus route.

Watford, for example, is about 20 mins by train or 30 mins by tube into central London. Reading about 25 minutes to Paddington.

A season ticket from Reading is about £3400 per year or £283 a month a lot of money for someone claiming LHA and that’s assuming they can find £3400 up front a weekly ticket is £85.

RDB

Jowo wrote: »

To play devil's advocate, those seeking employment opportunities often have to move location to take advantage of them, which means a change of school for their children.

Someone serving in the Armed Forces can uproot their kids every 2 to 3 years. So too for Vicars and other types of employment where regular moves are the norm.

If the claimants are working and claiming LHA, then they can choose a location away from central London, for example, with transport links to their employer, such as being on a good train, tube, tram or bus route.

Watford, for example, is about 20 mins by train or 30 mins by tube into central London. Reading about 25 minutes to Paddington.

As someone said peak time travel costs are very expensive into London if they are only earning min wage.

Jowo_2

ukcarper wrote: »

A season ticket from Reading is about £3400 per year or £283 a month a lot of money for someone claiming LHA and that’s assuming they can find £3400 up front a weekly ticket is £85.

Good point but Reading also has good job opportunities and Watford's not exactly on it's knees.

A weekly bus ticket works out around £12 per week which isn't particularly extortionate. This bus will get a person into central London from Peckham in 30 mins.

A person in employment reduces their expenses and maximises their income to live within their means, whether it means working longer hours, finding a job closer to their home, taking the bus instead of the train, and so on.