Third 'behind on rent' since changes
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24149763


When are they going to realise that this 'Bedroom Tax' just isn't ever going to work?

They don't have and never will have enough smaller houses to downsize everyone that needs it, leaving all these people in rent arrears that are only going to keep building up is just ridiculous.

This part sticks out to me, I bet some of these people have never been in any debt in their life and now due to these stupid changes are left owing money that they can't afford to pay.

I would say a repeal is on the cards, for those on a fixed income like benefits it proves that they are not as some think raking it in.
As well as the extra bedroom tax this year there is also the £125 fixed contribution to council tax to find also, I would think this too has been impossible to budget for for some.
This must be most unwelcome for those local councils in deprived areas as they have in effect been cut adrift with these changes, services will begin to be affected as the reduction of support from central government will take it's toll.
I really am at a loss to understand why they didn't envisage this happening?
What is being offered as a solution, cardboard city?...

It is going to get worse and this is before the eviction processes get going too so a lot more negative publicity to come on this issue.

A ridiculous policy that I still feel will contribute negatively to the chances of this Govt. getting in again.

And what do the councils do when people don't pay their council tax? That's right. Fine them. Throw them into even more debt and then spend more money taking them to court. I think it's also stupid that parents with kids of a certain age have to downsize as they can share but will have to up size again in a year or two. In fact I watched a programme a few months ago when a couple got a council house as they were expecting a baby. When the house was signed over to them the baby was still not due for 9 days so they had to pay bedroom tax as it was under occupied. I bet the admin work involved cost more. Ridiculous.

Bedroom Tax is they to make back some of the money the gov have wasted on thing that don't work

Is it.

Exactly, it's this bureaucracy that's at fault, it's so very obviously slap dash you would have thought it was dreamed up by GCSE students not economists and ministers...

well there trying to get the uk out of debt sadly this wont happen in out life time

Yeah and having 50,000 people now in arrears with bedroom tax is really helping isn't it.

i did not say it was helping or a good idea did i

but the 50,000 is extra money that is coming in but the bad news is the gov will probably blow it all on something stupid

It isn't extra money because it's not being paid, people can't afford it.

lol that not how it work all money own will have to be paid at some point you cant just say oh Mr and Mrs itdoesrntmatterwhattherenameis have not paid there rent for 3 month never mind let just let them of :bored:

They can't pay it if they don't have it which then means they could end up being evicted unless the bedroom tax is scrapped.

Which is basically the entire point of the article and the OP....

They do it all the time write rents off.....

I can see that under occupancy, when some people are living in overcrowded conditions, does need looking at. But bloody hell... what a ridiculous way to go about it. You can't ask people to downsize when there are no smaller properties available. You don't have to be a genius to see that, so why are these people with their expensive educations not able to grasp it?

Since they came to power the Tories have lurched from one crisis to the next, making ridiculous decision after ridiculour decision. Even their own supporters are turning against them. There was a not-so-secret meeting a few weeks ago (that Cabinet members were politely requested not to attend), where the possibility of ousting Cameron was discussed. They need to get rid of him, and Osborne, and everyone else who has not the first *******ing clue what real life is like. They have a year and a half to the next General Election. If they're going to stand any chance at all of doing well then they need a complete reversal of 80% of things they've implemented since they took over. It's got harder and harder to try to justify, professionally, the decisions they make. Thank God I don't have to do it for much longer.

The housing association that operates in my area have been reassigning rooms in some of their houses :p Basically small second bedrooms have been altered to utility rooms, plumbed in for washing machines and stuff.

well we don't no how much money each household has coming in and i not joking but some could be making money from drug dealing there not going to declare it are they

Stuff like this is why the Colonies started a revolution

this tax will be scrapped along with the single benefit payment scheme.
the world encourages debt by handing out credit cards to people that can afford to pay them.

In what way is what is happening here similar to what provoked revolution then?

I wonder how much is down to the tenants now receiving the money to pay their rents instead of it going directly to the landlords.

I am surprised the amount of people in arrears is so low tbh. You can't magic money from nowhere lie people are expected to do. Especially when they CANT downsize as the smaller places arent there :bored:

That doesnt happen yet. Thats when universal credit starts.

Thank god i have a one bedroom flat then. :hugesmile:

That's going to be a huge strain on some people, those in debt will skyrocket!

I'm a bit shocked at this, why have they done it purely for their tenants?
It's a nice thing to do but I have to admit I'm surprised.

It's already come into play in some areas. Ashton-Under-Lyne being one local to myself. I read a week or so ago that as much as £200 million spent on the Coalition’s main welfare reform programme may have been wasted due to mis-management, lack of planning and delays caused by the new system. £34 million spent on computer systems and services for the project has been written off because it delivered no value for taxpayers. And this system was designed to save money?

Oh dear....it can only get worse.


I am surprised the house builders aren't looking into building one and two bedroom flats on brownfield sites. Keeping it as basic as possible for low rental fees.

Oh yeah, I forgot UC was being trialled in some areas. I actually agree with the idea behind UC but as usual, its being implemented wrong IMO.

The 'spare room subsidy' (for arista..and the rest who get hung up on the wording) was never going to save money, nor could it ever 'free up larger' housing when the smaller places just arent there. People can't pay what they don't have, and cant move to non-existent preoperties. All that happens is councils end up with a load of tenants who are in debt, so the councils lose money. Meanwhile the odd tenant may kill themselves due to debt worries, but thats one number off the books so who cares...

Honestly, I dont think the goal of the recent benefit changes was ever to save money. It was to punish the poor for being poor. I know I am crossing into conspiracy theory territory there though ;)

Well I think you have summed it all up perfectly and it is a pity the heartless Ministers of Govt. cannot read and take on board what you have outlined.
Really well said absolutely.

I totally agree too vicky, this 'arms length' policy that the government maintained has now gone and effectively cut ties with a cross section of society... but it's not their voters and they've convinced them it's the right thing to do so....

uc will not be complete roll out UK wide till 2017 an less it scrap by then :bored:

It's not really a conspiracy theory, it's economic fact... The current government have had a sustained agenda to "blame benefits" and to turn the middle wage earners against low / no wage people (cant even say middle class / working class in regards to this any more as increasingly, there are many "traditionally" middle class people stuck on low wages).

They've done this quite successfully and kept the bulk of the population in a festering state of playing the blame-game, which stops them from wondering what the real problem is, and turning their gaze towards the malignant shambles that is modern politics, to the corrupt banking culture, or to themselves (for the 2 decades of spending money that never existed) as a big part of the blame. The easiest people to make a target for blame are those with no realistic prospect of fighting back. They dont have the financial power to fight back legally, and if they use people power to take to the streets in protest they will instantly be branded rioters / thugs.

It's also easy to remove empathy for them by saying "look! They're all drug users and alcoholics, they manage to find money for that!" and therefore dehumanise them. Conveniently ignoring that the culture of alcohol and drug abuse is caused BY, not the cause OF, generations of low socioeconomic status.

I was just reading that our local council has just brought in a policy that states they won't be evicting anyone in 2013/14 that has fallen into arrears due to the housing benefit reductions.

I'm not sure if any other councils are doing this but it would be good if they did...

I agree,however I know of people who are already facing eviction proceedings by their councils.

Since I really haven't yet come across a council that actually likes this measure,I would be pleased to see that no evictions will be carried out so it is good that some are taking that line now.

Awful policy,unfair, heartless and unjust,hopefully ending up one of the bigger nails in this awful Govts, coffin.

Again it's a case of completely jumping the gun, even if it was a good idea. IF they had made an effort to build new, decent quality one and two bedroom properties all across the UK and THEN asked people with "too many" rooms to move into them, that would be one thing... but they brought it in when there simply aren't any :/. In every area I've lived in (in Scotland and also down in Lancashire), 1-bed council properties are basically non-existent. In Scotland most of the smaller council properties are all but identical (they literally look exactly the same in the area I'm in now as in the area I went to school - over 100 miles away) and that is, 4-in-a-block "house" style flats, with 2 bedrooms. That's just how they built smaller council properties. It's all there is!

My mum (who is 60, on early retirement) lives in one such property and is currently paying bedroom tax. Thankfully it's not budget breaking for her, but still, when she was told about it she did say "Well, I'll have a look at the one bedroom options anyway before I make a decision". The reply?

"Oh... err... there... there actually aren't any one bedroom properties in this town..."
"Are any likely to become available?"
"No... no it's not that there aren't any available... there aren't any."

:rolleyes: it's a completely stupid situation, again probably caused by the policy makers not having left their ivory towers in decades. It's not that they just don't care that there aren't suitable properties available (although, they don't), it's that they simply are completely unaware of how anyone on less than a 75k salary actually lives... let alone someone on the 12k-to-20k full benefits income.

Those 4 block flats are called masonettes here. I agree the only 1 bed properties were mill cottages the council bought and were termed 'miscellaneous properties' on the housing forms of the 80's/90's, they got snapped up pdq during right to buy.
Other than them it's high rise, can you imagine your mother being forced to move to the 14th floor of a tower block due to this?