MSE News: Prime Minister David Cameron plans welfare crackdown

Former_MSE_Helen

"David Cameron will moot slashing benefits for families and young people today, in a major speech..."

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Prime Minister David Cameron plans welfare crackdown

missbunbury

Yeah, I can forsee problems with this. What about, for example, a married couple both aged 24 with a two year old who have both worked full time for six years and then both lose their jobs? Are we really saying they shouldn't get help with housing? Or in my own case, I could not have lived with my parents until I was twenty five, because after I was eighteen neither of them was in this country (mum retired to Greece, dad never was around, he's hiding in Guernsey to avoid paying child support!) So what would I have done? As it happened I was lucky enough to be in work that whole time but not everyone is that fortunate.

brit1234

I welcome the changes, clearly housing benefit is being abused, I see this every day at work.

silvercar

missbunbury wrote: »

Yeah, I can forsee problems with this. What about, for example, a married couple both aged 24 with a two year old who have both worked full time for six years and then both lose their jobs? Are we really saying they shouldn't get help with housing? Or in my own case, I could not have lived with my parents until I was twenty five, because after I was eighteen neither of them was in this country (mum retired to Greece, dad never was around, he's hiding in Guernsey to avoid paying child support!) So what would I have done? As it happened I was lucky enough to be in work that whole time but not everyone is that fortunate.

There will be exceptions, noticeably when someone does not have a parent in this country, but we can't have the policies made on the basis of the exceptions.

If you have a parent in this country that you housed you as a child, it is reasonable to expect them to continue to house you post 18.

Kushan

He will say that many young people are "living with their parents into their 30s" before they can buy a home, while "for many others, it's a trip to the council where they can get housing benefit at 18 or 19, even if they're not actively seeking work".

Does this not tell you that maybe the focus should be on getting people places of their own? That maybe house prices combined with lower paid jobs and hard to get credit are making it harder for people to get a mortgage to buy their own place?

I completely disagree with this move and I don't get housing benefit.

patchwork_cat

I think that this is terrible. WHat about those people whose parents are dead or who have been thrown out etc. They will become homeless and will turn to charities who will be stretched beyond belief, which they are increasingly lately.

I was a Housing Benefit officer, so whilst I have become more cynical than when I started I have more information that the general public.

missbunbury

I actually don't disagree with some of the aims of this - I know there are families where the kids move into their own council flats at sixteen or eighteen without a job to pay for themselves and then proceed to live a benefit-dependent lifestyle, and I think this is something which should be discouraged. But there are going to be so many who don't fit this (like the hypothetical couple I mentioned above) and there will also surely be ways round it - as I understand it, it's not uncommon for benefit-dependent families to exploit the "I've been kicked out of mum's" loophole right now, will there be a way to change this? And ultimately, are we really saying that we will see young people homeless? Even if they have kids of their own? Even if they are working hard for minimum wage? They already can't get tax credits, this seems like another way of making their lives difficult if they are in any situation other than having well-off parents.

Wywth

brit1234 wrote: »

I welcome the changes, clearly housing benefit is being abused, I see this every day at work.

So you only see the abuse by the under 25's?

Sixer

It's a recession economy. Jobs are scarce. Wages are falling.

Yet rents are rising.

While I'm happy to see welfare reform considered, I don't see why one half of the coin (claimants) should be the only one looked at.

Why should I support taxpayer money going to line the pockets of BTL landlords - who are already being supported by low interest fiscal policy - any less than I should support welfare reform? We've already had one round of quite considerable cuts to housing benefits. It's the turn of the landlords now.

And why is the target always the under 25s? Pensioner benefits make up a third of the welfare bill. Why should taxpayer money go on a £200 winter fuel payment to working 60-year-olds, even if they are higher rate taxpayers?

zerog

Don't know if this will do any good or not but by the time it has any effects, Labour will be in govenrment. If Cameron just made some actual big cuts back in 2010 instead of waffling on about being fair etc, and then gradually re-introduced stuff towards the next election, he would have a chance at a second term.

Gaz1971

If Cameron made all his big earning Tory buddies pay the full amount of tax they are due it would have a far more dramatic effect on the economy.