Housing Benefit Abolished

[Cado]

Housing Benefit has been abolished - it was done very quietly with no ceremony.

Housing Benefit was the original and best welfare system this country could have - its simplicity was absolute. Two social groupings (ignoring tax funded community):

2) Working Community: Have money therefore can look after themselves.
1) Non-working community on a simple living allowance of £600 a month.

I guarantee you at least 15 million people were probably on it when they abolished it. They didn't switch it off, they just prevented new people going on it.

Its to be replaced with UC at £77pw, which is quite a drop from the £150pw Housing Benefit. Apparently those still on HB are now NOT on HB but UC with an uplift to make up for the fact they were on HB. Therefore are now on £600 (approx) Universal Credit (UC).

The problem is a great many people relied on going onto HB at some stage of their life - ie when the low paid council workers retire, they expect to be on HB plus their State Pension - now they'll just be on their State Pension.

Anyway - a major welfare ship has just been scrapped - and like everything else the Tories/Civil Service do - they scraped the wrong one, it should have been UC.

TAPs:
1a) Housing Benefit £600pm early 1980s
1b) Job Centre - various legacy benefits late 1980s
1c) Universal Credit - the third iteration of re-inventing the wheel since no-one could quite get the previous two working as they should. £300pm (approx) 2014 ish.

Anyway - looks like cost-of-living crisis will get worse for more people now as more welfare dries up.

 

[SpookyFrank]

77 quid a week for housing is absurd. There is literally nowhere you could live for anything close to that in my part of the country.

Less if you're under 25 as well. Because...you get a discount on rent if you're young?

 

[krink]

1. Wrong forum
2. No it hasn't

 

[LeytonCatLady]

77 quid a week for housing is absurd. There is literally nowhere you could live for anything close to that in my part of the country.

Less if you're under 25 as well. Because...you get a discount on rent if you're young?

It's been 35 for the last 10 years. I remember losing a temp job in October 2011 and turned 25 the following month. I was living in a studio flat at the time and thought "ooh goody, I'll get enough for my actual flat and not just the equivalent of a room" but then the bastards raised the age to 35 in January 2012. No warning at all!

 

[belboid]

1. Wrong forum
2. No it hasn't

It is, was meant to have been done by now but got put back to 2024

Housing Benefit - Why Is It So Controversial - Politics.co.uk

An overview of Housing Benefit, its history, its relationship to the introducition of Universal Credit, and debates around the benefit.

www.politics.co.uk

 

[krink]

I dunno, the hundreds of housing benefit claims I process every week are definitely real. But maybe I live in a different reality.
There's loads of errors in the op but I cba correcting them all.

 

[Cado]

The Council offices where it used to be done are shut - and it says on the council website that people need to claim UC

I dunno, the hundreds of housing benefit claims I process every week are definitely real. But maybe I live in a different reality.

There's loads of errors in the op but I cba correcting them all.

I assume its still a straight £600 (max) per person (I know results may vary between councils) for being a member of the non-working. Assuming your in a Council House you don't pay rent or C.Tax.

Trying to get a handle of things.

Anyway - now people outwith the two below groups:

1. Those in specified / supported accommodation (B&Bs, hotels, accommodation with support included)
2. Pension Age claims

are put onto UC at half the price. ie £300 per month (Single person).

 

[Pickman's model]

Housing Benefit was the original and best welfare system this country could have - its simplicity was absolute.

housing benefit is as the name suggests a benefit and not a welfare system. it was certainly not the original welfare system or indeed benefit in this country. and as for its simplicity, there speaks someone who has never read a benefits handbook.

 

[weepiper]

You are confused. I am on Universal Credit because I am a single parent on a low income, working full time. I get all my £850 monthly rent, private landlord, paid by UC. Because it's less than the LHA maximum rate it's all covered. If I lived in a flat that cost more than £253.15 a week (which is the maximum LHA payable for a 3 bedroom flat in my council area) I would have to find the shortfall myself.

 

[Pickman's model]

Assuming your in a Council House you don't pay rent or C.Tax.

bollocks. council tax benefit was axed some years ago and every council now has its own system for of council tax reduction. can you link to somewhere showing no council in the land makes people on hb pay council tax?

 

[Cado]

Housing Benefit as it is presently structured dates back to the early 80s. Its a simple computer that does £600 per person per month. HMRC are the back shop of it. ONe office per District Council.
Following the demise of the Regional Councils in the early 80s which had various welfare payments, the DHSS opted for one simple system

2) IN paid employment and don't need welfare
1) Outwith paid employment and therefore do need welfare.


1) Was supplied via housing benefit at £600pm per person.

Putting it around a different way - everyone at 16 was supposed to be on HB - until in private employment., Once outside of private employment they'd be back on HB.

IT couldn't be a simpler system.

 

[weepiper]

Housing Benefit as it is presently structured dates back to the early 80s. Its a simple computer that does £600 per person per month. HMRC are the back shop of it. ONe office per District Council.
Following the demise of the Regional Councils in the early 80s which had various welfare payments, the DHSS opted for one simple system

2) IN paid employment and don't need welfare
1) Outwith paid employment and therefore do need welfare.


1) Was supplied via housing benefit at £600pm per person.

Putting it around a different way - everyone at 16 was supposed to be on HB - until in private employment., Once outside of private employment they'd be back on HB.

IT couldn't be a simpler system.

This is just bollocks from start to finish tbh.

 

[Cado]

bollocks. council tax benefit was axed some years ago and every council now has its own system for of council tax reduction.

EVery council still DOES IT OWN CTax reduction policy. I'm on it.

 

[Pickman's model]

Housing Benefit as it is presently structured dates back to the early 80s. Its a simple computer that does £600 per person per month. HMRC are the back shop of it. ONe office per District Council.
Following the demise of the Regional Councils in the early 80s which had various welfare payments, the DHSS opted for one simple system

2) IN paid employment and don't need welfare
1) Outwith paid employment and therefore do need welfare.


1) Was supplied via housing benefit at £600pm per person.

Putting it around a different way - everyone at 16 was supposed to be on HB - until in private employment., Once outside of private employment they'd be back on HB.

IT couldn't be a simpler system.

more tosh i see. no, not everyone at 16 was supposed to be on hb. you can't claim, i understand, if you're living with your parents. which would knock back a great number of 16 year aulds.

 

[Cado]

This is just bollocks from start to finish tbh.

IF you can do a better job of your food on you go..........

 

[Pickman's model]

EVery council still DOES IT OWN CTax reduction policy. I'm on it.

yeh and i'm asking you to link to somewhere which supports your claim that if you get hb you don't pay council tax.

 

[David Clapson]

Aren't we lucky to have this new member whose mission is to spread misinformation? Dickhead. ignore

 

[Cado]

more tosh i see. no, not everyone at 16 was supposed to be on hb. you can't claim, i understand, if you're living with your parents. which would knock back a great number of 16 year aulds.

Different Councils may do different things. Scotland generally does the same thing across the board.

The rules of thumb adopted by the Council were that you had to be in a non-working household in order to claim HB.

 

[Pickman's model]

Different Councils may do different things. Scotland generally does the same thing across the board.

The rules of thumb adopted by the Council were that you had to be in a non-working household in order to claim HB.

yeh but i'm talking about your claim that you don't pay council tax if you're in receipt of hb in a council home. can you substantiate that?

 

[Pickman's model]

Aren't we lucky to have this new member whose mission is to spread misinformation? Dickhead. ignore

pot meet kettle

 

[Cado]

Discounts, exemptions and reductions

Find out about registering for council tax, ways to pay, exemptions and tax bands in Scotland.

www.mygov.scot

Like I said, each Council does it own thing.

 

[weepiper]

Different Councils may do different things. Scotland generally does the same thing across the board.

The rules of thumb adopted by the Council were that you had to be in a non-working household in order to claim HB.

Wrong wrongety wrong. I've claimed HB for several years as a single parent before Universal Credit came along, and it was the council that paid me it not the 'DHSS' or the DWP as they are called now. I was working part time for most of that and full time for some. Then i had a joint claim later on when I was working full time and my disabled partner was unable to work. You do not have to be a non working household and it may not be called Housing Benefit any more but it is basically the same thing, just administered by the DWP rather than the council.

 

[Cado]

Claim a Council Tax reduction – The City of Edinburgh Council

Claim a Council Tax reduction

www.edinburgh.gov.uk

HB is classed as low income.

 

[Cado]

I've claimed HB for several years as a single parent before Universal Credit came along,

£600 by any chance?

You can work on it as long as your not "officially" paid - ie work in a charity shop or paid cash in hand. It was always intended on being THE non-working allowance.

 

[Pickman's model]

Discounts, exemptions and reductions

Find out about registering for council tax, ways to pay, exemptions and tax bands in Scotland.

www.mygov.scot

Like I said, each Council does it own thing.

like i said, every council does its own thing.

 

[purenarcotic]

Nobody has abolished HB. There is the housing element of UC, which effectively replaced HB for those renting either privately or through an HA / council. I agree it may well be less than what it was, but how much is determined both by the number of bedrooms you’re entitled to and the local housing allowance. You can find out LHA rates by googling ‘your area LHA rates’ if you’re particularly interested.

You can apply for HB if you have gone into temporary accommodation through the council or are living in ‘exempt provider’ accommodation e.g. a women’s refuge, supported accommodation etc. Again this doesn’t necessarily cover the full costs but there are various caveats.

What there is, and what isn’t spoken about enough, is a huge problem with lots of landlords buying up properties, turning them into HMOs and making huge profits from HB by saying they are ‘supported accommodation. The level of support is extraordinarily questionable in many cases, and the standard of accommodation poor. Through the change in HB regs, the Tories have created an easy opportunity to exploit for huge personal financial gain. It’s gross.

 

[xenon]

£600 by any chance?

You can work on it as long as your not "officially" paid - ie work in a charity shop or paid cash in hand. It was always intended on being THE non-working allowance.

This is just bollocks. HB paid my rent < than £600 PCM because I'm lucky enough to live in social housing. Had I needed to claim it once working, I could have as it's based on income, not the meer fact of having a job.

 

[purenarcotic]

I know of a woman who died in supported accommodation, as a man was placed in the same property despite having been released from prison after a history of violence against women. She had learning difficulties amongst other vulnerabilities. He murderer her. Had the provider not been solely interested in money, but actually cares about risk and support, they would have seen that it was crystal clear the two should never have been put in the same property. But who needs regulation or skilled staff when you can make a cheap buck.

 

[Cado]

Social Housing? You mean Council Housing - or housing association?

I prefer Council Housing - because you can live there with no money.

 

[purenarcotic]

£600 by any chance?

You can work on it as long as your not "officially" paid - ie work in a charity shop or paid cash in hand. It was always intended on being THE non-working allowance.

This isn’t really true. However, because supported accommodation is so expensive, it is true that it’s nearly impossible to work whilst living there and qualify for enough HB. So there is a grain of truth in what you say, but you’re missing all the basic nuance.