'Your country needs you'

[redken1]

I would urge all my friends on here to join the army of volunteers who have already signed up to PM Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ (BS) working tirelessly for no financial gain, proud to be taking up an active role in the BS while enjoying such a rewarding experience at the same time.

My wife insisted on stopping off for a coffee at the McDonalds restaurant in Trowbridge earlier. An unlikely place to find inspiration to do my little bit for the BS initiative, I hear you say.

Well those of you who frequent McDs will be familiar with the fast-food chain’s free coffee promotion – collect 6 stickers (one for every cup purchased) stick them on a voucher to be redeemed at the service counter for your free cup. While my wife visited the ladies’ room, I scoured all the empty tables removing the unwanted stickers from all the discarded paper cups and managed to collect enough for two free coffees in such a short space of time.

I’m going back tomorrow to collect more. I’m not ripping-off McDs as all the discarded cups with stickers were purchased and as the brand name is a symbol of the capitalist ‘American dream’ no harm in me assisting the ‘trickle-down-effect.’

What has this to do with the BS? I hear you ask. Well, when I have collected a significant number of vouchers I shall bring them along to my local ‘soup kitchen’ and distribute them among all those who have recently been made homeless as a direct result of PM Cameron’s ‘Bedroom Tax'.

:P :P :P

[Geordie Stu]

Welfare reforms will cut the amount of benefit that people can get if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home. This measure will apply from April 2013 to tenants of working age.

The power to do this is contained in the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and is commonly referred to as the bedroom tax, size criteria or under-occupation penalty.

What do the changes mean?

The size criteria in the social rented sector will restrict housing benefit to allow for one bedroom for each person or couple living as part of the household, with the following exceptions:
•Children under 16 of same gender expected to share
•Children under 10 expected to share regardless of gender
•Disabled tenant or partner who needs non resident overnight carer will be allowed an extra bedroom


Who will be affected?

All claimants who are deemed to have at least one spare bedroom will be affected. This includes:
•Separated parents who share the care of their children and who may have been allocated an extra bedroom to reflect this. Benefit rules mean that there must be a designated ‘main carer’ for children (who receives the extra benefit)
•Couples who use their ‘spare’ bedroom when recovering from an illness or operation
•Foster carers because foster children are not counted as part of the household for benefit purposes
•Parents whose children visit but are not part of the household
•Families with disabled children
•Disabled people including people living in adapted or specially designed properties.

How much will people lose?

The cut will be a fixed percentage of the Housing Benefit eligible rent. The Government has said that this will be set at 14% for one extra bedroom and 25% for two or more extra bedrooms.

The Government’s impact assessment shows that those affected will lose an average of £14 a week. Housing association tenants are expected to lose £16 a week on average.

How many people will see their benefit cut?

The proposal will affect an estimated 660,000 working-age social tenants – 31% of existing working-age housing benefit claimants in the social sector. The majority of these people have only one extra bedroom.

[Swanny]

How long before they tax home owners for empty rooms??

[Conehead]

How long before they tax home owners for empty rooms??

They are already doing this in council properties. My Mum was asked to pay for their second bedroom ever since my Dad was admitted to a special care care home. Luckily the law has now changed for pensioners and she does not need to pay now.

[Ducatista]

How long before they tax home owners for empty rooms??

I don't think it's beyond the relams of possibility.
The population is growing and we have finite land.
House price rise as a consequence, making it hard for those at the lower end of the social scale to find affordable acccomodation.

Is it selfish to hoard empty bedrooms, when other people can't get affordable accomodation?

At the moment the system does encourage people to buy excess housing, for example I pay no tax on any gains in the value of my home, but 40% on any gains in the value of my cash. I'd call that an incentive and one of the reasons I own housing excess to my needs.

Perhaps we might see the removal of incentives, but yes I do think it's an area that will come under pressure.

[Geordie Stu]

Here's an example.

A OAP couple living in a 2 bedroom house. The council see them as a couple & assume they sleep together. Therefore, want tax or reduce any benefit as they have an unoccupied room. The reality is that due to medical reasons they sleep in seprate rooms, but the council don't believe them & still charge them. No matter what the Doctors say & hospital say the council aren't satified with the living accomodation.

[Conehead]

Here's an example.

A OAP couple living in a 2 bedroom house. The council see them as a couple & assume they sleep together. Therefore, want tax or reduce any benefit as they have an unoccupied room. The reality is that due to medical reasons they sleep in seprate rooms, but the council don't believe them & still charge them. No matter what the Doctors say & hospital say the council aren't satified with the living accomodation.

Nail on the head. That was my parents situation. The councils dont listen and dont care.

[redken1]

Not all tenants living in public housing will be adversely affected by Cameron’s new ‘bedroom tax.’

Tenants residing in the Royal household will receive a 16 per cent rise in benefits from this April, increasing from £31million to £36.1 million courtesy of the taxpayer. > :-?

At least the echoes from the false claim, “We are all in this together” have now stopped. :-X

[Swanny]

No surprises there :-/

[redken1]

“Is it selfish to hoard empty bedrooms, when other people can't get affordable accomodation?”


Ducatista, my answer to your question would be a resounding no.

It is not selfish for a married couple in their 50s living in a two-bed terrace property, who both work part-time on the minimum wage (makes a mockery of Cameron’s claim to, ‘back workers not shirkers’) and are eligible for housing benefit, to want to hold on to what has been and is still their family home.

The husband may snore like a pig, forcing his wife to sleep in the spare room. They may wish to enjoy visits from their grandchildren during retirement. They may simply wish to hold on to their home which they have decorated throughout, and to hold on to all the fond memories of the years raising their family.

Allow me to pose a question;

In light of the fact that government officials acknowledge that 85% of the estimated 660,000 tenants affected by the bedroom tax will have to ‘stay put’ as ‘the housing stock is not there’ where will the ‘affordable accommodation’ come from?