Workers claiming Housing Benefit nearly doubles in 3 years

nomoreboomandbust

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I am greatly out of my depth in knowing all the complex rules about benefits claiming. So I just spent a little while ramming some figures into "Turn2Us" benfits calculator.

I 'set myself up' as a 35 year old married person - wife not working - but earning just £10K a year from a part time job of 22 hours a week. I had three children - of an age and sex mix that qualified me for £1,000 per month housing benefit in this area!

It staggered me to learn that I would get £24,440 in benefits (inc £1200 Council Tax, £8,618 Child Tax Credit, £2,456 Child Benefit, and (very perversely) £12,167 HB - although I only pay £12,000.

I checked my 'take home pay' from my job (£9,334) and added it to benefits (£24,440) and found that if I worked full time, I would need to earn around £46,500K to get the same net income.


I didn't bother to check what additional unemployment or other benefit my wife would get.

If this isn't taking the p1$$ then I don't know what is.

I don't have kids, but I am rather confused as to how I could possibly spend £11K a year feeding and clothing my three young kids.

£8,618 child tax credits, are you sure ?,that's almost as much as the take home pay, where is the incentive to better yourself at work

If those figures are correct, then it begs the question why are there so many children living in poverty ?

Loughton_Monkey

nomoreboomandbust wrote: »

£8,618 child tax credits, are you sure ?,that's almost as much as the take home pay, where is the incentive to better yourself at work

If those figures are correct, then it begs the question why are there so many children living in poverty ?

That's because Child Poverty has such a stupid definition. Something like the children of the bottom 10% or earners or something. So if we were a nation of millionnaires, there would still have to be a bottom 10% so child poverty would still exist!

Same thing with 'Fuel Poverty'. I explained a long while ago that I am personally in fuel poverty. Being early retired and below state pension age, I have oodles of cash, investments, house equity, and pension funds, some of which I am drawing. But it's not a massive 'income' as such. The cost of gas to heat my swimming pool can be quite large - on top of heating a large 4 bed detached - and so my bills are >10% of my income.

HMRC informs me that the basic Child Tax Credit amounts to £2,690 per kid. On top of that, basic Child Benefit is £1,056 for kid 1 and £697 per unit of kid added. Quite lucrative really. One assumed you have all the pushchairs etc already....

Loughton_Monkey

Graham_Devon wrote: »

.....nearly 10,000 extra working people per month have been claiming housing benefits

.. just had a brainwave....

I wonder if the HB people (or maybe Shelter) have been running a 'enrol a friend' incentive scheme or something? You know the sort of thing.... "Introduce a friend to Housing Benefit and we'll send you a free £100 voucher off your next month's rent..."

Wookster

ILW wrote: »

I already have a house, bought and paid for.
I do object to having to pay extra tax to subsidise rents being forced up artificially by the said subsidies though.

You're missing the point. The biggest causes of rental rises are:
- the lack of houses built in areas where demand is high
- a decade of off the chart HPI caused by cheap and easy credit

If houses were priced reasonably in a free floating market (where folks in default were repossessed under normal process) and credit was reasonably available then prices and rents would be at more reasonable levels.

ILW

Wookster wrote: »

You're missing the point. The biggest causes of rental rises are:
- the lack of houses built in areas where demand is high
- a decade of off the chart HPI caused by cheap and easy credit

If houses were priced reasonably in a free floating market (where folks in default were repossessed under normal process) and credit was reasonably available then prices and rents would be at more reasonable levels.

Are you saying that HB has no effect on rents at all?

Wookster

ILW wrote: »

Are you saying that HB has no effect on rents at all?

Not at all. It has had an effect, but that effect is minor compared to the other factors I listed.

At the moment we have a system where the most willing to pay get new tenancies, with rent controls we'd be on waiting lists.

Neither are real winners.

Generali

the_flying_pig wrote: »

no. no. no. that is not economics 101. it is very bad, thoughtless, bar-room economics.

Really? What happens to supply and demand if you put a price cap in place below the market clearing price in the porcine world?

morganedge

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Kaboom!

This means generally the only families able to afford 3+ kids are the ones that are massive drains on the coffers. It's an unsustainable pyramid that is going to have to have a massive adjustment - somehow.

I cannot believe quite how lucrative it is to churn out kids and be low paid. I wouldn't have bothered with 17 years of education and 5 years hard graft in the work place to get to my salary when all I need to do is work 22 hours on low pay and get handed the rest by the current government to breed more. Utterly insane.

It's funny, ain't it!
I didn't even know about this part-time 'loophole' until recently, but it sounds like an awesome way to go! Just work maybe 2 days per week to keep you 'in the loop' of the working world, and have the other 5 days off to enjoy life, and be no worse off financially!

Could be even more lucrative once this coalition nonsense is out of the way and labour get back in?

markharding557

The increase in working HB claimants runs in tandem with the huge increase in part time jobs.