What would you do in my situation???

ruggedtoast

AdrianC wrote: »

Umm, you do know that the RtB Social Mobility £30k was introduced by Osborne, who's widening the RtB from LA tenants to include HA tenants, and has reduced the 5yr-35% minimum to 3yr-35%, right?

Good grief. The Tories started this right to buy nonsense. No one should have any right whatsoever to purchase state property.

Lord_Baltimore

I'm truly surprised that the OP appears to have let some kind of cat-out-of-the-bag for some Money Saving Experts here. Perhaps the site needs to change its name.

The right-to-buy scheme has been in place for decades and effectively transfers wealth from the State to the individual. You can read this as meaning from the taxpayer to the Council house tenant.

Homes can be bought at knockdown prices or a cash payment made to assist Council tenants to buy non-Council property. It was a popular political tactic at inception and I presume Mr Osborne feels it still will be.

If this is news to you I suggest you take a closer look at how taxpayer's money gets spent; you really can't assume anything!

And for anyone wondering why you might be working your nuts off to buy an unsubsidised home through your own hard work, well, wake up and smell the coffee .

nonnatus

Oh no Lord Baltimore, I know all about Right to Buy a council house.

What surprised me was the option to be given the £33k to potter off and spend in the private housing market...

AdrianC

nonnatus wrote: »

What surprised me was the option to be given the £33k to potter off and spend in the private housing market...

Do a little digging, and you'll see how limited that option actually is - even though, in many cases, it's FAR cheaper for the social housing sector than people exercising their RtB.

And before people go off on the party politics, remember that 13yrs of a Labour gov't did nothing to stop RtB.

Dan-Dan

AdrianC wrote: »

And before people go off on the party politics, remember that 13yrs of a Labour gov't did nothing to stop RtB.

Well they wouldnt of , it was nothing more than Tory `lite`

moneyistooshorttomention

So...in answer to the original "What would you do" question and mine would be not to use RTB to get the Council house, but to take the £30k odd bribe towards buying on the open market.

I would see it as wrong to RTB public sector property - but it would depend on personal circumstances as to the morality of taking a "bribe to go". So - then we are back to "Are we talking about OP's circumstances or our own personal circumstances?".

My own personal circumstances are I've never had any married persons tax allowance (yep...it was still around back when I started out) or child benefit money or sent children to State schools and have always had to pay a single persons bills (ie full tv licence/higher Council Tax etc) - so, in own personal circumstances it is regarded as = "Whew found a way to get some money to counterbalance all the extras handed out to those who are married and/or with children. That will set the balance a bit more correct between me and them as to respective financial help from Society".

In OP's personal circumstances = it would depend how well my conscience was functioning basically and I'd like to think I would just go out and buy on the open market and not take the bribe (ie because I'd had plenty of financial help from Society anyway) and wouldn't know for sure unless I had their circumstances obviously...

ruthmt

Wow! I see I've opened a whole can of worms here....but I completely understand the outrage.

Firstly, I personally do not agree with the RTB or the discounts that are given for social housing tenants. I do not usually align myself with many Tory policies but I do agree that social housing should be limited to those on the lowest income (which would exclude us).

I think it's morally wrong to sell off social housing but the government are putting these incentives under our noses and, first and foremost, my priority has to be to my family rather than the whole country. I know this is a bitter pill for others to swallow but I cannot turn down an opportunity just to take the moral high ground (though it seems many of you would). I am looking for security for myself and my children.

Our circumstances changed around 14 months ago.

My mum died f cancer in the 1980's leaving my dad as a young single father with three kids. Our house was repossessed and he never recovered. We lived in homeless hostels at various points throughout our childhood and I had moved 16 times by 17 years old.
My husband was raised alone by his mum as his dad spent most of his childhood in prison.
Our families are completely broke and we have never been able to turn to anyone for help...we have spent most of our lives pretty destitute (as I'm sure many of you have also).

I was a teenage parent with nowhere to live and the state were kind enough to help me out and provide me with a council house 16 years ago. I have worked for the last 14 years and the most I ever earned was £14k a year. My husband was earning £15k a year.

We turned things around- we both studied and I qualified as a teacher in 2013. My husband now earns a lot more than me as an engineer but we have about £40k in student debt and have just finished paying off the credit cards and loans that we accrued from not having enough money to live off for several years.

Now we have worked hard and got ourselves into this position we want to make sure that our children will never have to struggle the way we did and that we can help them when the time comes and they want to stand on their own two feet.

I know it is unfair, I totally agree. But the system is what it is and I would be stupid to walk away from an opportunity that could give us our first taste of security.

DRP

^don't blame you and would do the same if in your situation. I find it hard to believe that anyone would turn down the financial help, when push came to shove.

Don't take the comments personally, they are 99.9% critical of the policy, not the person.

Nick_C

Your story is truly inspirational Ruth. If you had chosen the easy option of a lifetime on benefits as a single mum you would have cost the country more than £100K.

You are quite right. RTB is wrong. But you would be a fool not to take advantage of it.

There is a lot wrong with our benefits system, and its not all down to people chosing not to work. Free TV licenses, bus passes, and winter fuel allowance for wealthy pensioners are all wrong, but I will claim mine when the time comes if they are still available.

Jhoney_2

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Well, a secure tenancy in a council property is a rare gem these days, it has a heck of a lot of value both to the people living there and the council.

I think its far more fair (to everybody) to offer an incentive for people to give back the house so somebody else can use it as social housing, rather than offer a whacking big discount on RTB so that the house is lost to the system forever, not to be replaced.

I suspect only for a little while, then they will have the same option, may be happier to take it and the tax payer percentage/incentive will potentially be higher -

There was a time when I had heard private LLs were offering tenants with RTB money to process their RTB option, and buying it off them - (perhaps giving them a bit more money than the council) to get hold of flats for B2L purposes - could have been the 90's...it does matter I suppose, whoever the buyer, they are gone.

It's policy to blame imo, not the exercising of the option to buy. There's a serious lack of political foresight. It's the same with NHS usage vs pressure on health services and immigration implementation vs recruiting skills and simplified movement through countrys .

I can't blame the beneficiaries. Lobby the MPs.