Do I have this right

lozhazie

Me and my Wife live in a 2 bedroom house, As a married couple, (no idea why we would want another bedroom eh?), because we are married, we got the single bedroom rate housing benefit and the couples rate JSA. I have started work but this astonished me when some one pointed it out. I just want to know whether I have it right and what every one else thinks.

That is £77 per week Housing benefit, and 210 per fortnight JSA.

OK If we had ever split up and lived in the same house... get this. We would get 65 pound housing benefit each, each week 130 total P/W, and 280 in total jsa a fortnight between us.

Tell me again, AT WHAT POINT IS THE GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGING MARRIED COUPLES TO STAY TOGETHER?

enabledebra

It costs less to run 1 household than 2 even under the same roof.

lozhazie

We were chipping 100 per month to the rent to make it up, so out of our JSA we got (210x2-100) 320 per month (170 per fortnight). Under the split conditions, The rent would have been paid in full, and we would have had (280x2) 560 per month for the bills and house hold, I'm sure it doesnt cost 240 more to run two housholds a month rather than one under the same roof... I'm just saying (and i know this echoes through every forum on here) The benefit rules are really worked out in a strange way...

enabledebra

The rent would have been paid in full because you would have needed 2 bedrooms rather than just choosing to live in a 2 bedroomed house. The extra JSA is actually just £35 pw if you don't deduct the amount you chose to spend on 2 bedrooms (which is fair enough - your choice).

I'm not trying to pick fault, just trying to say a 2 single people on JSA are not enjoying a better lifestyle than a couple on JSA unless they are in reality a couple and sharing costs.

lozhazie

Completely missed the point, people who live together chose to do so because they get on and can share costs. So they are enjoying the same lifestyle as married couples except they sleep in separate rooms. I'm sure the decision to live in a two bedroom house for a married couple is more common as having to move when one is caught out as pregnant is not recommended, having to establish them selves in a new community and shift everything they own is very stressful and costly. So necessity for the possible future rather than choice.

Man_Overboard_2

I guess the boundary between legitimised 'couples' and 'pairs of singles' becomes increasingly blurred.

enabledebra

Maybe some single people can find a perfect housemate who is willing to share everything a couple shares and yes if a group of 20 single people on JSA could get together and live like a big happy family they would have an even better standard of living but the rates are based quite rightly on the assumption that a person is not sharing costs otherwise poor billy no mates would be pretty badly off. To try to factor in the savings each person might make depending on what costs they are sharing with whom would be an administrative nightmare and cost more than it saves.

lozhazie

Agreed Man over board. I just think it was amazing that the difference was so big. Our friends live together as singles, and while we struggled they had excess cash to go on trips down south every month, buy big screen tvs and game consoles.

enabledebra

lozhazie wrote: »

Agreed Man over board. I just think it was amazing that the difference was so big. Our friends live together as singles, and while we struggled they had excess cash to go on trips down south every month, buy big screen tvs and game consoles.

But don't you agree that some of that difference in lifestyle might be because you were spending £100 per month of your income on a spare room... again I'm not saying you shouldn't have done that or ignoring that it might not have been a completely free choice but the cost was there eating into the income available for other things.

edit ps - I agree people shouldn't have to wait until a baby arrives to be able to get 2 bedrooms paid for, it just creates anxiety and stress for the sake of saving a few months extra housing benefit and is a ridiculous rule.

sniggings

The only real difference is the rent but the person living by themselves is not benefiting so much from that, not sure what point you are making here really?

Dunroamin

lozhazie wrote: »

Agreed Man over board. I just think it was amazing that the difference was so big. Our friends live together as singles, and while we struggled they had excess cash to go on trips down south every month, buy big screen tvs and game consoles.

If that were true, it would indicate that benefits really are far too generous. In reality, it indicates that either someone's telling porkies or working on the black!