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Feel like going back on benefits.
Comments
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Really? Maybe we come from differing backgrounds then
There was a documentary in recent months specifically about "council housing".
After the war, in the 1950's, (boom time for council housing projects) there was a huge increase in the availabilitiy of "council housing"; for many, this was an opportunity to be released from the degradation of private landlords/tied cottages, who didn't give a damn, yet charged regardless, and the those who were still homeless following the WWII. To be "awarded" a council property was deemed a 'step up the ladder'. Certain criteria had to be met (such as ability to pay the rent) and strict regulations were laid down on how the property should be kept (standards in curtains, for example; cleanliness, keeping the 'grounds' neat and tidy, etc., ). People were 'proud' because it meant, if they obeyed the regulations, they would have a home for life - this meant that when the original tenants died, the offspring were able to take over the tenancy: just so long as the rent was paid and the property cared for ) So, yes, there was indeed a sense of pride! There was no other scheme in existence which offered such security of tenure (other than mortgage, of course!). Rackman springs to mind (in terms of private lettting) and was the fear of many in terms of private renting.
Also, council housing in its infancy, included space to grow-your-own and was deemed essential (at that time: a lesson to be learned in today's lean times?).
With respect: it really *was* a source of pride!
Both my parents were brought up in condemned slums. I don't think people now realise quite how bad some of these places were, quite how long it took to move them all out (my father's family made it into a council house directly after the war but my mother's condemned slum was their home until she was 17 in 1956), or that you had to be in work, earning, and "respectable" to qualify for many of them.0 -
Merlin, I understand how you feel. It IS disheartening sometimes. I have a slightly different point of view on this subject.
Me and OH work full time and live on a council estate at present (saving hard to move off) and in the mornings when we all get up to go out, we see one other family on the same road getting up to go to work. One other family! Most people on the road are on benefits. It's disheartening when you really do not feel like getting up on an icey morning to go to work, and know your neighbours are going to have a nice long day of chilling out, after a long day of relaxing the day before and all on your income tax. I do hear where you are coming from with this.
The point I would like to make after my long ramble, is all these familys who do not work, I have lived near some of them for 15 years, and these are the same familys who pass down the benefits torch to their kids - I have seen it...., because they see that as the way to live, that is how they have seen their parents live, and that is how they will live. They are impressionable. The girls become single mothers and the lads become dossers with no aspiration to do anything other. It is how they have been brought up - it is the message their parents have given them. I would be scared of giving the 'It is OK to be on benefits for an easy life/more money - rather than go out there and achieve something' message to my kids. You really do need to think of the message you would be giving your kids if you did this.
Thats all really, i'm not trying to infer you are a bad parent at all, just offering up a different, but imo valid point of view.
Where do you live....Downing Street?0 -
Now we get
£174 ctc
£74 wtc
£55 CA
£33 cb
£200 wages. =£509-£100 rent and council tax-£50 petrol- tax@ni £20=£339dd3 is disabled and only 13 so impossible, she attends a special school till 5.15 every day.
You get Carer's Allowance right? So, does that mean your DD3 gets DLA? That's an extra £49.30 - £125 a week.:beer: Been smoke free for 4 years!! :beer:0 -
I am hoping to be on a 'back to practice course' next Feb after a break through illness, and then hope to be back at work. I will be bumped back down to the bottom of the pay scale, and will be worse off than I am currently. I can't wait though- hopefully there will be opportunities to progress back up through the pay scale. I will be paying into a pension again and will feel like I used to when working-that I am in control of my life and achieving something. I am pretty sure the benefit system will be changing drastically over the next couple of years in any case, and this discrepancy will be addressed so that there will be more motivation to get back to work!
OP there seems to be a fair amount of wriggle room in your budget to me, that should allow you to manage on your not 'that' low income. There is lots of valuable advice on these boards to help you achieve that. Good luck!Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it!0 -
Really? Maybe we come from differing backgrounds then
There was a documentary in recent months specifically about "council housing".
After the war, in the 1950's, (boom time for council housing projects) there was a huge increase in the availabilitiy of "council housing"; for many, this was an opportunity to be released from the degradation of private landlords/tied cottages, who didn't give a damn, yet charged regardless, and the those who were still homeless following the WWII. To be "awarded" a council property was deemed a 'step up the ladder'. Certain criteria had to be met (such as ability to pay the rent) and strict regulations were laid down on how the property should be kept (standards in curtains, for example; cleanliness, keeping the 'grounds' neat and tidy, etc., ). People were 'proud' because it meant, if they obeyed the regulations, they would have a home for life - this meant that when the original tenants died, the offspring were able to take over the tenancy: just so long as the rent was paid and the property cared for ) So, yes, there was indeed a sense of pride! There was no other scheme in existence which offered such security of tenure (other than mortgage, of course!). Rackman springs to mind (in terms of private lettting) and was the fear of many in terms of private renting.
Also, council housing in its infancy, included space to grow-your-own and was deemed essential (at that time: a lesson to be learned in today's lean times?).
With respect: it really *was* a source of pride!
I come from a working class background (father postman, mother cleaner) who rented privately (rent controlled flat) and I wasn't allowed to play with the children from the council estate.
My husband's background is similar (family moved out to one of the "New Towns" ) and they were very happy to be rehoused but they were even happier when they were able to buy it and no longer be council tenants.
In general, the people who lived there may well have been proud but there was a stigma attached to council housing if you were looking at it from the outside in many cases.
By the way, I'm not saying that this is right; I agree with you that council housing was an excellent thing. However, I do think it's an attitude you might not be familiar with if you lived in council housing.
ETA
"Social housing
Local authority housing grew after World War I; 2 million houses were built before 1939, over 4 million more after the war. Initially, council housing was intended for the "working classes". The main justification for its development after 1919 was the provision of housing for general needs, but after 1930, it became focused on people displaced after slum clearance. The stigma of council housing probably dates from this period: council estates were built in locations where they would not adversely affect the values of owner-occupied property."
An Introduction to Social Policy Paul Spicker0 -
Oldernotwiser wrote: »I come from a working class background (father postman, mother cleaner) who rented privately (rent controlled flat) and I wasn't allowed to play with the children from the council estate.
My husband's background is similar (family moved out to one of the "New Towns" ) and they were very happy to be rehoused but they were even happier when they were able to buy it and no longer be council tenants.
In general, the people who lived there may well have been proud but there was a stigma attached to council housing if you were looking at it from the outside in many cases.
By the way, I'm not saying that this is right; I agree with you that council housing was an excellent thing. However, I do think it's an attitude you might not be familiar with if you lived in council housing.
ETA
"Social housing
Local authority housing grew after World War I; 2 million houses were built before 1939, over 4 million more after the war. Initially, council housing was intended for the "working classes". The main justification for its development after 1919 was the provision of housing for general needs, but after 1930, it became focused on people displaced after slum clearance. The stigma of council housing probably dates from this period: council estates were built in locations where they would not adversely affect the values of owner-occupied property."
An Introduction to Social Policy Paul Spicker
My grandparents worked on the fairground. In fact my grandfather was born in a caravan on some scrubland! My father was a postman. We had a hard life, but it was a happy one.
My wife and I lived on a council estate in Manchester.
Through hard work we bought our own property which included all of the responsibilities of it's upkeep.
We sit back now in an evening and my wife still says that her happiest times were when the children were babies and we lived on that estate.
Of course there was trouble almost every evening, but on the whole, the people were a lot more friendlier.
Now it seems to be that everybody is trying to out do everybody else.
Why can't people just accept what they have and get on with life.0 -
:eek: In *that* case ... it's my ball and I'm going in nowOldernotwiser wrote: »I come from a working class background ... and I wasn't allowed to play with the children from the council estate... I do think it's an attitude you might not be familiar with if you lived in council housing....
Thank you for the quote from the article; interesting read!0 -
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Was that across the board ie anyone who lived on the council estate or did she have some particular families in mind? Thankfully my kids don't play with a certain family in this village, cos I would ban them but that's based on what those kids are like as they live in a more expensive house than me. You don't always think of these attitudes in years gone by. My Grandmother surprised me recently by telling me that she had the choice of 2 Grammar schools to go to when she passed her 11+ and her mother didn't want her to go to one of them as she considered it 'rough'. This was 1935.Oldernotwiser wrote: »I come from a working class background (father postman, mother cleaner) who rented privately (rent controlled flat) and I wasn't allowed to play with the children from the council estate.0 -
Was that across the board ie anyone who lived on the council estate or did she have some particular families in mind? Thankfully my kids don't play with a certain family in this village, cos I would ban them but that's based on what those kids are like as they live in a more expensive house than me. You don't always think of these attitudes in years gone by. My Grandmother surprised me recently by telling me that she had the choice of 2 Grammar schools to go to when she passed her 11+ and her mother didn't want her to go to one of them as she considered it 'rough'. This was 1935.
No, that was across the board, although there were also non council estate children I wasn't allowed to play with either.
There's nothing quite as respectable as the "respectable" working class.;)0
:o:o 
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