General Discussion
and the comments make worthwhile reading, but I wont be satisfied until it is overturned completely !!!!
I am about to cause some controversy....sorry!
Why should a single person get full HB if they occupy a 2/3 bed house?
It seems illogical that the Govt/Local Authority should pay for that.
Yes, I agree it seems an absolute nonsense. But what is even more nonsensical is that there is a huge shortage of one bedroom accommodation in the social sector for them to downsize into and thus if they can find smaller accommodation it will be in the private sector where rents are higher and where the full HB being claimed could well be higher than the full HB being claimed for the two/three bed house.
That is of course if private sector landlords will even consider having those on full HB as tenants. Private Sector Landlords are perfectly entitled to say, and do say, "No DSS".
I was looking at the FOI request answers that TDC have given out over this bedroom tax issue yesterday. One of the questions posed concerned what TDC were doing to help find one bedroom accommodation for those who wished to downsize to accommodation of that size. TDC's answer?They are prioritising lettings for those who wish to downsize and they are having talks with developers about providing more one bedroom dwellings.
Would that imply a shortage of such stock I wonder?
What I find illogical is that the Govt/Local Authority pays huge sums of HB (taxpayers money) to private sector landlords and then it (the government) has the gaul to go on about the ever increasing HB bill!
According to TDC, @ Feb 2013 there were 241 social housing tenant households in the TDC area who will be subject to the bedroom tax and who need to move to one bedroom accommodation in order to avoid the bedroom tax.
(Source: Answer to FOI request)
That's an awful lot of one bedroom dwellings that need to be found/built between now and April 1st (which is when the bedroom tax comes into operation).
Perhaps the concessions aren't quite what they seem after all?
Have a read of this and the comments underneath.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/14/foster-carers-bedroom-benefits-cut