Benefits not to be cut to £26,000 a year - good new for low paid workers?

[TeaFan]

In the whole discussion around benefits, the Tory strategy has been to talk about the very upper end of what people receive, both in terms of state benefits and housing benefit. That way they convince a lot of people that all their benefits policies are reasonable, because people can't get £26,000 p.a. out of their heads, when in fact a lot of very ill people who weren't on much in the first place will be even worse off, but that gets lost in the headline-grabbing figures.

[Robbie Loving]

Good evening folks,

 

Can we keep this on topic,

 

Further off topic posts will be deleted and you may find your account suspended.

 

Thanks all

[Andy]

If Housing Benefit is cut, does that mean that someone in London, such as me, is more likely to be able to afford to rent/buy a house? In theory, if the people claiming benefits have to relocate out of the city, that means those of us who work here should see rents reduce due to less demand?

[TeaFan]

If Housing Benefit is cut, does that mean that someone in London, such as me, is more likely to be able to afford to rent/buy a house? In theory, if the people claiming benefits have to relocate out of the city, that means those of us who work here should see rents reduce due to less demand?

 

In a word, no. The fact that so many people are now unable to buy means that rents are at record high levels as there are more renters chasing roughly the same number of rental properties http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13457418

 

Very few properties are being built in either the private or public sector, so this is unlikely to change any time soon.

[Cyclone]

Yes but do you know that under Dave Cameron's current reform plans claiming benefits will be like getting blood out a stone.

 

Rich, would you mind explaining why you don't think benefits should be cut, yet you're in the process of buying a pretty expensive new phone?

[Grandad.Malky]

Rich, would you mind explaining why you don't think benefits should be cut, yet you're in the process of buying a pretty expensive new phone?

 

And as a flat, I can`t kick my sons out.

[Lady Star]

Said workers would be receiving £14,000 of benefits, if their circumstances were the same as someone not working and receiving £26,000.

 

That is not always true - a single person, or married people without kids, have little recourse to te public purse even when on tiny wages for full time work... When I first left uni and worked a min wage 16 hour week, I had to get family to subsidise me as I wasn't even elligible for housing benefit, as I sometimes had to work a 17 or 18 hour week (I was on the clock, and you left when it was all finished)... Sometimes £12K a year is just that, and yet you just survive... Not a great life, more of an existance... It's only the hope that things will chamge and your wages will increase with experience that keeps you going...