Should the bedroom tax be scrapped? please vote

[ee-bee]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/poll/2013/sep/19/bedroom-tax-housing?CMP=twt_fbo

[dfh101]

Done.

 

Thanks for highlighting this.

 

dfh101

[ee-bee]

might need to change title to get more people to read and sign,

[mr_mastiff]

I am totally against the "bedroom tax". It states that 50% of the people effected by the policy are now in debt. I wonder how many of these people were in debt before this change and have now gone deeper debt because of this and lets not forget having to pay a percentage of the council tax on top of this. I have asked the council for figures concerning access to "fighting fund" for people who can not pay but nothing as come back yet.

 

perhaps I will have to use the freedom of information act.

[ee-bee]

I am totally against the "bedroom tax". It states that 50% of the people effected by the policy are now in debt. I wonder how many of these people were in debt before this change and have now gone deeper debt because of this and lets not forget having to pay a percentage of the council tax on top of this. I have asked the council for figures concerning access to "fighting fund" for people who can not pay but nothing as come back yet.

 

perhaps I will have to use the freedom of information act.

have you voted on the guardian page

[bcham]

my friend as been hit by this bedroom tax,he now as only £45 a week to live on after paying towards council tax and bedroom tax and a small loan he had from the jc.

so £41 a week for TV license, gas, electric,water rates, phone,bus fairs,food and clothing. and people think every ones as wide screen tvs and sky.lol.

[ee-bee]

hoe can i put the word "URGENT"in the title,the poll closes today,we need as many people to sign as poss

[Nystagmite]

Ask the site team to sort it for you. Under your message, there's a black triangle. Click on that and send a message to the site team.

[ee-bee]

Ask the site team to sort it for you. Under your message, there's a black triangle. Click on that and send a message to the site team.

thanks x

[AndyOrch]

Thread title amended

[ee-bee]

Thread title amended

thank you so much,x

[mr_mastiff]

have you voted on the guardian page

 

yes and my wife and as many people as i can get hold of.

[RaeUK]

Just seen this - and just voted. It only takes a couple of seconds.

[caro]

Voted.

[osdset]

Voted

[antone]

Yep, voted.

[stu007]

Have Voted.

[abc123def]

me too

[renegadeimp]

It is one of the worst ideas the condems have ever had. And thats saying a lot!

 

The sad thing is though is that it will NOT be scrapped, as it is making the councils and the government a heck of a lot of money. They know they cant force people out of their homes, so theyre doing the next best thing. Making sure people get in massive rent arrears through this and have them evicted.

[Nystagmite]

It would have been better if there was a box to add a comment. I think in some situations, (ie, those who have been offered a chance to move but refuse to) people should pay the tax.

[AndyOrch]

It would have been better if there was a box to add a comment. I think in some situations, (ie, those who have been offered a chance to move but refuse to) people should pay the tax.

 

Probably wouldn't be worth it Nystagmite for the handful of peeps that have actually been offered alternative accommodation as there are none.

 

Perhaps a box to ask how do you feel about the Mansion Tax ?

 

Regards

 

Andy

[caro]

Wow andy. What a novel idea!! Tax the rich instead of the poor!

[bedofweeds]

What's the betting that 9 out of every 10 that voted are the ones affected by it? And no doubt it will be argued that the vote was fair. Ummm

 

Personally I think that they should keep it and thereby making it completely fair right across the rental market - council/HA & private rented.

 

Or do away with it all together and make the private rental market the same - remove all questions of number of bedrooms to arrive at the appropriate Housing Allowance .

 

As it is at the moment, those in the private rental market have accepted the situation, so why should the HA/Council market be any different?

 

My daughter rents privately and has a 3 bed property She has 2 children, 2(F), 6(M). Unfortunately the 6 year old lad has severe learning difficulties and sleeps very little and most nights (in the early hours) sees him emptying the drawers and throwing things about and screaming for hours on end. Luckily he is in his own room.

 

She can only have the 2 bed rate and as such has to find £60 a week out of her other benefits to pay the rent.

 

She accepts this - yet then she asks why should she have to put up with this whilst council and HA tenants are kicking off because it is their turn now to see their reductions in HB.

Edited September 21, 2013 by bedofweeds

[antone]

The key difference is that LHA wasn't applied to existing claims - people seeking properties were fully aware of the situation. And of course, the private rental market is more flexible and bigger. But yeah, nobody who'd been living in a property for years suddenly got 15 or 20 percent of the money arbitrarily yanked overnight.

 

But strange to say, I'm not actually opposed in principle to reducing over-occupation in the social sector. It's the implementation of this thing that really stinks. We could reorganise the way social sector housing is offered, or reduce benefits to those who have been offered a smaller property more in line with their needs but refused it. Problem is, those properties simply don't exist, and I don't see any government volunteering to cough up the cash to build them.

 

The net effect here will be to force people from social sector HB to private sector LHA. This will cost more, of course, since private sector rents are higher.

 

On the personal point you raised, it's nothing to do with your daughter, but I suspect if the private sector tenants had done a better job of "kicking off" when LHA was introduced, many of these injustices would have been resolved and no-one would be in this situation now. Or maybe they were right - maybe there's nothing anyone could do about any of this, and we should all just throw up our hands and say "No point in fighting!" I couldn't live with myself if I did that, and I will take that view to my grave. I'll lose energy as I age, but not my conscience.

[Consumer dude]

This is the poll tax all over again. Me thinks there's going to be trouble ahead..