"London housing benefit claimant numbers soaring..." - The Guardian

A._Badger

drc wrote: »

I understand that the socialists envisage a perfect world where everyone is supported but it just isn't financially sustainable. For every Venezuelan cleaner with 4 kids, the housing benefit (let alone the other benefits) are made up of the tax of several minimum wage earners. The sooner the welfare state is reformed the better.

Doubly ironic, given that Venezuela is supposed to be to be a miracle socialist state under Chavez.

BigAunty

I am really dubious about the Redbridge statistics in the article where it is claimed that LHA recipients have more than doubled. I would like to see the evidence to support this.

I have found a DWP paper on the statistics of housing benefit claimants and in Redbridge, the figures went up from 17870 in June last year to 18770, June this year. This is an increase of 900 claimants, around a 5% increase in that year. Download the spreadsheet for June at this website.

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/index.php?page=hbctb_arc

I am assuming that the paper includes LHA, not just HB claimants in social housing or private tenants on the old system who have not moved onto LHA.

Does anyone know where the journalist got his figures from?.

EDIT - the DWP figures for HB include all claimants, LHA and HB. The spreadsheet provides a breakdown of all 4.9 million HB claimants in both the social and private sector.

This means that while the journalist is reporting on LHA claimants there was only ever a modest increase in Redbridge in that period.

It shows that HB claimants increased in Inner London from June 10 to June 11 from 416,620 to 421,680. In Outer London, they increased in this period from 394,420 to 406,870.

Optimist

Sapphire wrote: »

Isn't the huge rise in claimants due partly to immigration? I don't think immigrants are leaving – and in many parts of London they seem to be increasing, perhaps coming from countries which don't have benefits (or far fewer than in the UK), or where the economy is sinking fast. There seems to be a truly huge number of immigrants not just from third world countries, but also from continental Europe in London. It's noticeable everywhere you go, listening to people speak. I wish the government would face up to the EU and not allow people from abroad to claim benefits from UK taxpayers – many of them don't even keep any money they do earn in this country, and have no loyalty to the UK.

Well if this report is true then hold onto your hat as we will be paying even more

Ministers have discovered that the EU is currently seeking to negotiate deals with Ukraine and north African countries that could result in millions of people being given the right to claim state pensions and benefits in this country.

kabayiri

Radio 5 had a broadcast from Athens the other day, interviewing 2 youngish people who were struggling. *Both* of them had 2 degrees each, and in what you might consider valuable disciplines (micro electronics and computer science).

And yet, they were struggling to find any sort of work.

So what does the future hold for these people. I'd wager that a good few will look beyond their home country. Their command of English is good, so I could envision somewhere like London being high on the list.

If parts of Europe go through a painful period of transition, we might see more people looking to come to relatively healthy economic centres like London. The housing system will have to adapt and evolve if it is going to cope.

Sapphire

It's all very worrying – not only because of the fact that taxpayers' money is being used for all this at a time of rising economic hardship, but also because of other implications for society, in terms of its identity, for instance. A country can absorb a small immigrant population, and be benefitted by it, but not immigration on the scale there is now.

This needs to be stopped as soon as possible, before we go the way of Greece.

StevieJ

Sapphire wrote: »

.

They feel the UK and its taxpayers are being exploited. After talking to many people from my parents' country, it is completely obvious that all they are coming here for is to receive the generous benefits that they would not receive in their own country. They send any money they receive back home, then settle down to a far better life in their country courtesy of the UK taxpayer – who continues to pay their children's (strategically born in the UK) benefits even though they are not living in the UK.

.

Wait a minute I thought they were taking all the jobs, hard working etc etc

StevieJ

kabayiri wrote: »

If parts of Europe go through a painful period of transition, we might see more people looking to come to relatively healthy economic centres like London. The housing system will have to adapt and evolve if it is going to cope.

I would have thought that those are precisely the type of immigrants that we should welcome.

A._Badger

Sapphire wrote: »

It's all very worrying – not only because of the fact that taxpayers' money is being used for all this at a time of rising economic hardship, but also because of other implications for society, in terms of its identity, for instance. A country can absorb a small immigrant population, and be benefitted by it, but not immigration on the scale there is now.

This needs to be stopped as soon as possible, before we go the way of Greece.

I think we have passed that point, long ago, sadly. London is unrecognisable in large parts.

And, please, no one even bother to call me a 'racist'. That card has worn so thin you can see the pattern on the other side. The one that says 'Property of the Institute For Social Research - Frankfurt University' repeated over and over again.

Ilya_Ilyich

Road_Hog wrote: »

Probably he is, it's a tool of the Marxists. To stop any discussion about immigration it is deemed racism, and the racism card will be played whenever anyone mentions it. It makes question you yourself if you're a racist and makes you afraid to even discuss it.

Are you for real alleging that hamish mctavish is a marxist?

kabayiri

StevieJ wrote: »

I would have thought that those are precisely the type of immigrants that we should welcome.

I'm in total agreement. There are talented people in countries going through disruption, and they would make a good contribution here.

..but it will still add to a system under strain.