Benefits Calculator

[Xena Worried prince]

I have just received an email from Southwark Council which included a link to "help work out what benefits you are entitled to."

I have to say it is fascinating and if you change your circumstances from "Property Owner" with no job to "Renting from a private Landlord" with no job, the differences in what you can claim are amazing.

As a private owner you are entitled to ?0 in housing benefit, yet the same person renting somewhere (say ?1000 a month) can get upto ?270 in housing benefits a week.

Surely both circumstances need money to keep a roof over their heads, a bit unfair don't you think.

anyway if you need help then go to Sponge Calculator to see what you can or can not claim.

I am interested in peoples views on the issue of Housing Benefit if you rent vs. nothing if you own.

[????]

No Gordon is making sure homeowners are helped if they lose their job...so he trumpeted back in the autumn....this is, of course the reality, there's only one person he's trying to keep in his home and that's himself in Number 10...

he's a shambolic imbecile on the bridge of a sinking ship.....we need someone with vision and boldness...and I can't see who that is, but it sure isn't him

[*Bob*]

The HB system was in place long before Brown 'got in' (or 'moved next door', I should say)

I enjoyed a pleasant (and extended) stay on housing benefit. Thanks, taxpayers! It was a breeze.

[woofmarkthedog]

What a bunch of winkers

[bigbadwolf]

Sponge calculator. Ha ha, that was good Xena.

[dulwichdreadlocks]

It's right that the government should pay rent for unemployed people so that they don't wind up homeless. I see no reason why the State should help someone buy their home by paying their mortgage. If somebody's really desperate they need to sell their home, rent privately and then duly claim housing benefit.

[TillieTrotter]

.

[giggirl]

I can understand the logic of Government money not being used to pay off the capital on an unemployed person's mortgage, but what if it was switched to interest-only for the unemployed period? If it's interest-only then the Government isn't helping anyone to accrue wealth, merely keeping a roof over people's heads. I confess I've never given it much thought and would be interested to know what others think (just so long as the thread doesn't go all Daily Mail - yawn).

[Brendan]

It is quite an interesting question. Which is worse, using public money to pay for people?s mortgages ultimately enriching the banks, or making people give up their homes and rent privately thereby putting more homes on the market which will be snapped up by private landlords ultimately resulting in more property in the hands of fewer people?

If I look at the face of it I have to say I have an issue with benefit money ultimately ending up in the pockets of private landlords or the banks.

[dulwichdreadlocks]

Giggirl, I've definitely read that people claiming JSA indeed can claim Housing Benefit to cover interest-only on their mortgages. They have to have below a certain amount in savings though I believe.

[ratty]

They will pay the interest for a period I believe!

[dulwichdreadlocks]

Brendan Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It is quite an interesting question. Which is

> worse, using public money to pay for people?s

> mortgages ultimately enriching the banks, or

> making people give up their homes and rent

> privately thereby putting more homes on the market

> which will be snapped up by private landlords

> ultimately resulting in more property in the hands

> of fewer people?

>

> If I look at the face of it I have to say I have

> an issue with benefit money ultimately ending up

> in the pockets of private landlords or the banks.

So more council housing then?

[Brendan]

Don?t know. I don?t have any opinions or answers, just trying to unpack the question properly.

Where would more council housing come from? Councils buying up repossessed properties? That would probably be too expensive. The government appropriating properties from the banks or private individuals? All sounds a bit ?Zimbabwe?.

A long term strategy of proper regulation in the housing market may work. Now if only we had a government who we employed to run the country because that is the sort of thing we could rely on them to do, surely.

Anyway hopefully not too many people will lose their jobs and consequently their homes and it won?t be a problem. Well any more of a problem than it already is.

[????]

"Anyway hopefully not too many people will lose their jobs and consequently their homes and it won?t be a problem. Well any more of a problem than it already is."

...dream on Brendan, dream on

[PeckhamRose]

At the moment benefits are going to McDonalds, KFC and the cigarette companies. What's new?

MrRose claimed unemployment benefit recently. As taxpayers we are taxed separately (I am self employed), but when claiming he was assessed as part of a couple, and even though I earn less than ?10,000 a year, and he was out of work, guess what - he only only entitled to ?60 and no council tax benefit either. We don't have a mortgage and don't pay rent.

What's even more frustrating, Peckham's JobCentrePlus gave NO help or advice regarding retraining and new NOTHING about all the schemes and plans and extra help and retraining that the government keeps telling everyone is happening now. Peckham JobCentrePlus is utterly useless.

Fortunately, quite a few of you kind lot are employing him at the moment and so we hope this will continue till he gets another job because he signed off since there was absolutely no point in signing on.

[????]

"What's even more frustrating, Peckham's JobCentrePlus gave NO help or advice regarding retraining and new NOTHING about all the schemes and plans and extra help and retraining that the government keeps telling everyone is happening now. Peckham JobCentrePlus is utterly useless. "

Nope it's not the jobcentre that's uselees it's the governemnt that is...these schemes don't exist (see also support for mortgages and freed up lending for small businesses), this governemnt is useless, shambolic, and corrupt. They have made a lot of noise about what they are doing and apart from giving away ?10bn on a useless 2.5% cut in VAT they've done SFA...but it all sounds great and dynamic in mr "I feel your pain' Brown's media appearances....or slimey, corrupt ?1m pension pot from the EC, Mandleson's pronouncements...bring on the revolution get rid of these leeches

[Xena Worried prince]

I think the schemes do exist, and the government are trying to move them forward, but from what I have heard the Jobcentre haven't been told about them.

[KalamityKel]

dulwichdreadlocks Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> So more council housing then?

You'd be homeless for a very long time before considered worthy of a council place...

[Cassius]

I went to the CAB in Peckham after 6 months without a job and was told that because I have no children and am not pregnant I am not applicable for any kind of help whatsoever. Apparently 25 years of paying taxes is irrelevant. Luckily I am in a contract role at the moment and saving desperately but do feel that there is no safety net for many.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

I was on the Southwark Waiting List from 1973 until I bought my own place in 1983...better check as I might still be on the list...kept getting pushed further and further down the list....:-S....why couldn't I have been born in Borneo or Andorra or Liechenstein..I've have been housed within around 7 minutes/weeks/months by Southwark....still maybe in the next lifetime..(tu)

[bigbadwolf]

That was a close one Tony. Started with Borneo then ran with the tax havens. You'll have won over both the Daily mail and Guardian readers. Smart work.