Benefit cap of £500pw loses legal challenge

[chipspice]

This is a good turn of events. Seems that those who want more than £500 a week in benefits (which is approx equal to the average salary in the UK) have been beaten in the counts.

 

The women who brought about this case seemed to think that as they were single parents, they deserved more than £500 per week in state hand outs

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24818747

 

£500 a week? where is that equal to the average salary? certainly not here in the North!

[Plain Talker]

Nobody has the RIGHT to live in an area of their choosing.

 

So, by that dint, someone disabled doesn't have the right to request to be housed nearer their family or other support network, something which may well lessen the burden on social services? (or alternatively, someone with a disabled relative doesn't have the right to be rehoused nearer that relative, in order to provide support for the disabled person?)

 

Equally, a battered wife, presumably, doesn't have the right to be rehoused out of the area where her abusive husband lives, to protect her or her children?

 

Note:- before you start saying "That's not what I said!", let's look once again at the precise wording from the post you made which I quote, above:-

 

Nobody has the RIGHT to live in an area of their choosing.

 

Quite unequivocal. "Nobody has the right to live in an area of their choosing."

[Cyclone]

Right to request is not the same as right to live. You generally have the right to request whatever you like.

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2013 at 07:18 ----------

 

Why not make up another 100 different situations none of which will help anyone.

 

You've made up your particular scenario, the not even very realistic one where every household that earns 35k owns a property, even in London, where the benefit cap actually matters.

[truman]

I agree. The working family will incur extra expenses associated with work such as travel costs, child care and additional clothing and laundry costs.

 

The stay at home family will have none of these costs.

 

Unless I've got my sums wrong, a single working person wishing to earn £35k a year would need an hourly rate of roughly £20.

 

It's also worth pointing out that £35k is what a senior and experienced nurse can expect to earn. A fire fighter earns about £30k. A police constable earns about £26k.

 

I just thought these numbers might help people who believe that £500 a week is "poverty" to get a grip on reality.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this.....

[Zamo]

No truman, the effects would not be the same which I have explained previously in detail. Look back, its's all there. The HUGE difference is that the £35k family have a completely different mindset, a mindset that can proactively fix problems, find solutions, get back up like Loob did. The children won't be damaged from the experience. A family or single mother with kids on benefits will not have a positive mindset or the skills to get out of the mess she finds herself in.

 

What you are talking about is people who have become welfare dependent. Maintaining that dependency is not a solution to their problems but the cause. It is also something we can't afford to do any more, even if we wanted to... which most people don't.

[barleycorn]

What would be the point supposing a family on a salary of £35k have been renting for MANY YEARS but now suddenly find themselves up against it and not able to afford their rent? it's not realistic as nobody would do that so there is nobody in that category at risk. I can imagine a family who have been renting for maybe a short time on a £35k salary who suddenly find it hard to make their rent but then it's no big deal if they have to move. But not for many years which is the very real scenario now hitting the £500 pw benefits families. It's not a fair, probable or possible scenario. Forget the unrealistic what if's and focus on the real right now's. I'm not interested in scoring points on this thread, I'm concerned about the very real problems facing the families at risk who this cap is going to hit really hard when they have no options.

 

I earn over 35K, am 39 and have never owned my own home nor can I afford to buy one (yet). I have a family and rent privately so have far less security than your £500/pw benefits family. I could be given 2 months notice to move at any point. It's not fair that someone who has never worked has a more stable home than I do but guess what, life isn't fair.

That said, the £500 cap is not really going to affect many people outside of London, just think what size house you could get in Sheffield for £300/pw, and in London may go some way to bringing rents, both in the social and private sector, down to more reasonable levels. In the short term, tough. Either move somewhere cheaper or look to improving your lot through employment.

 

jb