A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

charlies-aunt

Kidcat - I agree, its absolutely shameful.

It's going to hit tenants on low wages and benefits really hard - I think that taking in lodgers is going to a partial solution for the tenants that are underoccupying.

The gulf between rich and poor is getting wide and deep - give it another few years and the workhouses will be back for those who can't get a job, can't afford a home and have no family.

prepareathome

Not been here for a bit sorry so trying to catch up - Kidcat please, please, please rest - I had pluerisy for a year continuously, oh a long time ago as I refused to stop working, running after the family etc, etc I was very lucky that I did not get pneumonia so please do rest, houses can easily be tided later, your health is not so easily got back.

I fulfilled my dream on Tuesday night when I actually saw the Osmonds in concert. I waited over 40 years to fulfil it but was worth the wait.....been in bed every since but again worth it.

Hugs and love to everyone, healing thoughts sent to those who need them xxx

ginnyknit

Downsize, they will be lucky, round here there isnt even a shoebox left to rent. Its definately a landlords market. Dd went on another viewing today, sat outside the property and got a phone call to say the viewing was called off. How un -proffessional is that?

Went round 3 CS's today and the stock was appaling :eek: doesn't seem as if anyone is donating anymore. Came home and held a funeral (on my own) for Dd's cat, she wanted her buried with all the others in my tranquil bed, complete with a large pot Buddha. Spent the rest of the day cleaning and getting annoyed with life :mad: But its another day tomorrow - Is it? flippin heck thought it was duvet day

debbym

Anyone remember a TV programme called something like "When Michael Portillo was a Single Mum"?
He had to live for 1 week in the house of, doing the job of, and looking after the kid of, a single mum who was an LSA in a local school. I remember him dropping the fried egg on the floor whilst serving dinner and having to put it back on the plate because he suddenly couldn't afford to waste food.
This kind of thing should be compulsory for all MP's before they can even think about changing welfare policy. Come to think of it wouldn't trust them with kids though, just a flat which makes you ill to live in and zero money to live on and see how they like it for a while.

savingqueen

I haven't been paying close attention to the changes in housing benefit etc (as we have a mortgage and our own financial worries to occupy me) but knew from what I had read it was all very gloomy news added to many other benefit cuts, prices rises, unemployment and all the other 'austerity' cuts (not for the bl***y rich or course) and recession nasties. However now I have read more on this thread I feel even angry and sickened and helpless.

I am now really worried for friends of ours. My friend's DH became unexpectedly disabled, lost his job because of it and now cannot work, although he is studying and hoping to eventually change career (if he can get a suitable job and his health doesn't continue to deteriorate). My friend is a SAHM, youngest child pre-school age and although she had a decent job before, she may not be able to be the main or only breadwinner as her DH sometimes gets 'bad days' and needs her help just to get out of bed and then there are the children to consider.

My friends lost their mortgaged house last year as they couldn't keep up repayments on sick pay/benefits and so are now renting. Their choice of housing was limited to what was available to benefit claimants (not a lot) and suitable for someone with limited mobility and other practical considerations. They could only get a place with higher rent than their benefit and make up the extra rent themselves.

They have a 3 bed house with 1 boy and 1 girl well under 10 so I worry they will not be able to afford their rented place with the changes to housing benefit. The children's bedrooms are tiny, the equivalent of one double sized room together but I know that won't matter. Thye have all had some much to deal with already and the eldest child was very unsettled after the move though they managed to move near enough to drive to school.

What is this country coming to? I worry for our children's future, DH & I will bumble along somehow, we are used to not having much and don't need much anyway - as long as DH doesn't get made redundant now his work's voluntary redundancies have finished.

sorry to ramble about me and mine - just in one of those moods when I feel sad and angry about all this stuff. Will get dressed and so something practical.

sq:)

mardatha

I'm reading about the number of people who have died after being found fit to work by Atos gestapo doctors. One man who had worked all his life then was diagnosed with a progressive lung disease, was found fit to work although he was down to 7stone and could hardly breathe. He died 12 weeks after that decision. My own DIL is the same - she has pulmonary fibrosis, failed the medical and is now on JSA and "fit to work".

westcoastscot

Byatt keep your chin up - we can do this, just need to keep focussed and not let it engulf us.

Kidcat wish you were nearer so I could help - try and concentrate on getting better. Maybe once you're back on your feet you need to tackle your DH about how to pick up the reins when you're unwell????? I had to do this with my boys when I got my diagnosis, and now they jump in when I cannot - plus they appreciate me more when I can!!!

Going to try and have a positive day today - the sun is shining so going to potter outside. Wondering whether to try my electric bike again along the canal???? It was getting harder and harder to get back up the hill last year so put it away - am wondering now if I couldn't push it up the hill and build my strength that way after a short cycle.

Enjoy your day, WCS

GreyQueen

Morning all, just returned to the Land of Consciousness after 13 hours in the Land of Nod. Lost the plot early yesterday evening and crawled off to my pit and zonked. ME is a fun-filled illness. Bit worried to have been left so whacked out after two 4-day weeks back-to-back. Must eat more broccoli, or even [STRIKE]kale[/STRIKE]. Ooooops, sorry, that just slipped out.:p

Smileyt and others, will this bedroom tax thingy be applied to council tenants as well as housing association and private tenants? I'm not asking for myself but am concerned about the wider implications. I'm fortunate enough to be in work at the moment and have only one bedroom in any case.

We know in our city that 40% of our council homes are classified as "under-occupied" i.e. people have bedrooms not in use by a household member. A lot of them are pensioners in 3 and 4 bedroom homes which they were allocated as family people 40-50 years ago. Exempting pensioners from the bedroom tax, although a good thing for the individuals concerned, won't liberate these homes for needy families on the list. I suspect it's about money-saving and a spiteful attitude towards the poor which seems to be increasingly prevalent in political circles. I have concerns that even when the current shower are booted-out, whomever replaces them will find it expedient to continue in the same vein.

Because of the people I see through my work at the LA, I know fine well that there are a lot of young people, even as young as 16 and 17, who cannot stay in the family home. Sometimes the family home isn't even in existance any more; the parents have parted and re-partnered and there is nowhere that a young person can go and hope to find even a sofa or a floor to rest their head on. Sometimes the parents won't have the young person back, sometimes there is no room, the parents may be dead or emigrated........life is infinately variable and these legislation changes seem to think that there is always a nice home with the childhood bedroom ready and waiting for an impoverished young person to return to in their hour of need.:mad:

I would LOVE to dump politicians in the kind of living situations in which ordinary people have to manage, but not for a mere week or a month, but to endure the grind year-in, year-out, with no hope of returning to the affluent life. No pension pot and privilege, no connections to the influential people, just grubbing around on the edges of society and trying to make £1 do the work of £2.

There's an awful lot of desperately-poor people in the Towers where I live. People who are seriously-ill but who are being found fit for work, they tell me. I'm incredulous; some of these people are grey with pain, can barely walk, look about 20 years older than their actual age and are constantly in and out of the hospital and these are somehow fit to work?! I'm gobsmacked.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, rant over, gotta get down with the real business of life. The sun is shining between showers at the moment and I will spend a few hours attending to much-neglected domestic matters and playing on the interweb between times as a reward. Later, if I muster the energy, I may pootle lottie-wards for a bit of gardening, otherwise it'll have to wait until tomorrow when hopefully I am a bit more rested.

Hugs to all, GQ xx

shelley_crow

Think you've hit the nail on the head there GQ.

These politicians are used to priviledge and probably haven't ever worried about where the next meal is coming from or if their kids are warm enough because they can't afford to heat their house.

I'm sure we would all be fine and dandy if we had affluent families, hobnobbing with the rich & famous and being educated at the top private schools. Politics seems to be a priviledged old boys club, something that the common person won't have access to or any clout in.

All the cuts won't affect them and living in well off areas, they won't have to see the desperation and deprivation that their policies are bringing about. I've twigged that the charity shops are empty because people are having to sell their unwanted belongings themselves.

Another poster had it dead right, the poll tax riots are going to seem a trifle in comparison to what is coming.

Gonna try and grow some potatoes, I'm not greenfingered but it's worth a go!

katieowl_2

My mum is in one of those 'underoccupied' flats. She's been there since the early 1970's (when it was newly built) and has a 'spare room' since I left donkey's years ago. She's paying her rent in full so this change won't affect her, but she won't move, because she says she get ONE offer of another flat, and if she turns it down she goes to the bottom of the list. She doesn't want to end up in a 'worse' place than she's in.

I think it's bonkers, as she'd love a one bed with a garden (like the one my gran had) and the council could undoubtedly do with a 2 bed flat. But as she's got no real say in what she gets offered she won't do it. Mum's on the 6th floor of a tower block, and cannot use the lifts. She's very claustrophobic, and in the 40 odd years she's been there she never has, she always walked up and down, and now she's in her mid seventies, still does!!! We keep telling her she won't be able to do it forever, but one of the reasons she won't move is that they could decided to stick her in a one bed on the 20th floor of somewhere!!!

Kate