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Families hit by benefits changes
Comments
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Flight2quality wrote: »So all families with more than a couple of kids on low incomes will have to move away from London?
Are there laws about boys and girls sharing bedrooms after a certain age? There should be.
there are indeed rules about sharing bedrooms
for HB purpose it is deemed unreasonable for a 16 year old girl to share with her 15 year old sister ; so the family would be entitled to an additional bedroom in this situation.0 -
Linda_D and The White Horse: please stop flirting you two - it's embarrassing.
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there are indeed rules about sharing bedrooms
for HB purpose it is deemed unreasonable for a 16 year old girl to share with her 15 year old sister ; so the family would be entitled to an additional bedroom in this situation.
How incredible. I slept in my mother's room till I was 16 and left home. My brother slept in the same room as my father. We were quite poor. When I lived in London in my 20's we were 7 people, and sometimes 8 people, sharing a 3-bedroomed flat in Chelsea. I obviously don't recommend sharing with a parent, of course, but for a 16 year old girl to not be able to share with a 15 year old - that is luxury!0 -
Counting 2 people per family would be a nightmare. There are his kids, her kids, their kids, his step kid, her kids half-brother....The_White_Horse wrote: »no, it is easy - you get money for 2. if you have more than 2 kids in your family, it doesn't matter who their parents are. 2 is the max.
maybe "household" would be better than family?
Well well well. I agree with The_White_Horse about something (and also with SingleSue, which is much less rare). HMRC manages to deal with CTC/WTC on the basis of family/household income and family/household number of children, so the DWP could too. Although you do have to be very careful means testing households, or you produce an incentive for parents to live separately, even if they would be happy to live together. That's one of the things Frank Field has been saying needs changing.
OTOH, I can see a lot of problems with providing benefits only for the first 2 kids, most of which are to do with families changing their composition. It's not just the solvent, wage-earning parents of 4 who lose their jobs. What about my friends who have two kids of their own, and have recently given a home to the daughter of a friend of theirs who died - do you think they deserve CB for her any less than her mother did while she was still alive?
In any case, suppose you do pay benefits for two kids only. Some benefit claimants will go on and have 6 kids regardless, and then what happens to those kids? It's still the same old problem - how do you disincentivise childbearing among the benefit-dependent population without disadvantaging the children of those families even more than they would be anyway? It's very difficult.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.0 -
It's still the same old problem - how do you disincentivise childbearing among the benefit-dependent population without disadvantaging the children of those families even more than they would be anyway? It's very difficult.
Ask China?
Sterilisation after 2?"If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Darthvader wrote: »Why not send them all to Wales or the lowest rent areas, it will be a good leveler for the UK.
It's a pity we can't find some way of getting them to live in all those empty houses on new-build housing estates in Ireland, where they have too many houses and not enough people to live in them.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.0 -
It's a pity we can't find some way of getting them to live in all those empty houses on new-build housing estates in Ireland, where they have too many houses and not enough people to live in them.
And whilst we are still in the EU must be some space now in what was the old Eastern Bloc."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Flight2quality wrote: »So all families with more than a couple of kids on low incomes will have to move away from London?
Are there laws about boys and girls sharing bedrooms after a certain age? There should be.
Only if you live in social housing or get local housing allowance are your kids protected from sharing by their age/sex. If you privately rent with your own money, pay a mortgage or own your own home, your kids don't count.0 -
So where are all those on a low income supposed to live then? Oldham? And commute in on a 10K season ticket?
There are loads of people in London getting paid a wage too low to provide housing in or anyway near within a commutable distance to London.
What salary is a Tesco shelf stacker on in Richmond? What about cleaners, chambermaids, dishwashers...etc...?
Who is going to do all the low-skilled, low-paid work when they're all forced out of the capital?
You either up their income dramatically (fat chance) or...yep, subsidize their housing.
Giving people handouts just forces wages down. Businesses will have to pay enough if they want to survive.0 -
Only if you live in social housing or get local housing allowance are your kids protected from sharing by their age/sex. If you privately rent with your own money, pay a mortgage or own your own home, your kids don't count.
More accurately, if you provides home for your children you are expected to decide for yourself sleeping arrangements.
Kids are not prevented from sharing, being entitled to more rooms than you have means you can access waiting lists for larger properties or recieve more in LHA. It doesn't automatically provide those rooms.I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages & student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.0
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