An example of how farcical the bedroom tax is

[crazy-bargain-store]

My neighbour's rent is currently £80 and is 100% paid by housing benefit.

He has a spare bedroom which is a small box room.

He has been told that from April he will have to contribute £11.20 per week towards the rent which he cannot afford so he has found a one bedroom flat to rent in the private sector. The rent for this flat is £90 per week which will be paid 100% by housing benefit.

How can this make sense?

[renomarvinm]

How does social housing work in the USA?  Sporadically, at best, if at all.  There are some individual cities that have rent control - caps on how much a landlord may charge for rents, and there are some public assistance programs for people in need, but they are not very effective.  I'm not an expert on this - what I'm saying here is just what I've seen in the news.

Santa Monica, California, is famous for its rent control, and I think some areas back east, such as some of the New York areas have it too.  In some instances, landlords would literally make a killing on the market, were these measures repealed.

For good or evil (depending on one's viewpoint) Great Britain is WAY AHEAD of us in such social matters.   Generally, our people are divided between the two polarized, opposing viewpoints of extreme social conscience and   the "quit feeding the moochers" groups - call them left and right wings, I suppose.   In truth, there are valid arguments on both sides - provided they don't go to extremes.

Historians say that they can determine the quality (and ethics) of a society by the way they treat their dead.  By inference, and with just a short leap, this may also  be applied to the poor, the sick, the wounded, and the homeless.

Honestly, we are not doing all that well here.  We live in Eugene, Oregon, on the west coast of the USA, in the Great Northwest, which has always been somewhat depressed.  We've been here for a little more than a year now - beautiful country - but I've never seen so many people begging on street corners in my life....

The Third World is coming to us...

[blackburn_stevie]

I can think of only one group of people who will benefit from all this Malarkey.

Those guys that put adverts in the local papers saying, "Man with van for light house moves"

[al**bear]

Great Bedroom tax video on youtube !

"You Cannae Have A Spare Room in a Pokey Cooncil Flat"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bik9299kA0c#!

Absolutely brilliant Joe

The Glasgow classic that, that song is based on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7SAPmcwXA

'The Jeely Piece song'

from the late great -  Matt McGinn

[joe_bloggs*]

Al,I sent the video to Richard Murphy,and he thought it was brilliant and posted it on his very well read blog!

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/

Last time i looked over 100,000 had watched it

[pm_booksandstudiopottery]

Reality being.

We have a Welfare State that has spiralled totally out of control.

The measures that the Coalition have taken,are no more than managing the increase in Benefits.

We are still borrowing far more than we can afford. Just look at the figures.

We are still living FAR beyond our means. The very real reality,is that our MEANS are far more limited nowadays.

There will be are reckoning.

It will not be pleasant.....

[Anonymous]

is it true that this shamble goverment are borrowing more than the last lot?

[stepheaton1985]

i think each MP should be made to live on £71 per week for a month (plus child benefit and tax credits if applicable) and see if they still want to make all these changes that "punish" children for their parents not having a job.

when the bills go out in february after a cold winter and they have to starve themselves for a month just so that their kids can get some beans and toast in them, only to find out that their benefits have been reduced because they have a bedroom they dont use and they have to find the money to pay for it or else live on the streets. the only other option is to rent out that room to a complete stranger you know nothing about who will get full access to your house and family

so, decisions decisions, eh... x

[bankhaunter]

i think each MP should be made to live on £71 per week for a month (plus child benefit and tax credits if applicable) and see if they still want to make all these changes that "punish" children for their parents not having a job.

You could always sign the petition

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/01/iain-duncan-smith-petition-signed-by-13000_n_2992370.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Lets see if IDS can live on £53 per week.

[dr-whos-assistant]

Why is everyone blaming the government surely they should be turning around and blaming the people who have caused this to happen. The single mothers with 6 kids who has never paid a penny into the system, the false disability claiments,Those who keep having children even though they have nothing of worth to offer them. the list goes on.

Its awful that those people who really need help are suffering because of changes, but the government is trying to do something and whatever they do is going to be wrong in the eyes of some.

[al**bear]

That poll has well over 100k signatures now

He said he could survive on £53 a week,  trouble is Iain , you may scrimp through 1 week, but try it for say 4 weeks.

This from the Man who claimed over £320 A DAY in MPs expenses.

[margaret*e]

What about rents at around £100 a week, or is he not counting details like that.

What about when the unexpected happens, your appliance breaks down, a larger than usual fuel bill, a pet taking ill suddenly, all extra money that has to be found from a weekly income. 

[al**bear]

this is after rent & rates

[bankhaunter]

Energy costs and water rates would gobble up a large percentage. existing for a few weeks may be possible but, depending on precise circumstances, a longer period would start to get extremely difficult.

It is the grinding down effect of poverty which is so pernicious, as time goes on replacing household and personal items becomes impossible.

[Anonymous]

well just watch the crime figures mount up, there will be riots in the streets all because of some uncaring nose in trough mps. well we have the power to vote these vile disgusting tory's and their puppets out, and the sooner the better.

[renomarvinm]

Rumbling beneath these many bedrooms, one may find a subliminal undercurrent (no, it is not the city's water pipes and/or the sewer system) but there is the thought that, just perhaps, just possibly maybe, somehow........these bedrooms are being taxed because they are ground zero, so to speak, where people fulfill their reproductive urges, and produce more people, which taxes the system in return even further.....and so on.  

So, I must ask, is the system attempting to somehow prevent this??? 

[tommy.irene]

[treefrog6352]

  http://speye.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/bedroom-tax-why-and-how-all-tenants-should-appeal-and-the-impact/

[treefrog6352]

well just watch the crime figures mount up, there will be riots in the streets all because of some uncaring nose in trough mps. well we have the power to vote these vile disgusting tory's and their puppets out, and the sooner the better.

Labour went along with it and voted for it as well

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

Rumbling beneath these many bedrooms, one may find a subliminal undercurrent (no, it is not the city's water pipes and/or the sewer system) but there is the thought that, just perhaps, just possibly maybe, somehow........these bedrooms are being taxed because they are ground zero, so to speak, where people fulfill their reproductive urges, and produce more people, which taxes the system in return even further.....and so on.  

So, I must ask, is the system attempting to somehow prevent this??? 

Interesting idea ... but one bedroom is generally enough for that. 😉

I do wonder if, down the track, when we have all got used to the idea of bedrooms being taxed, they might try to introduce it for home owners too.  It would bring in a lot of money, given how many single occupancy homes there are now, with the aging population, divorce, etc. 

[mustard-tree]

As mentioned before, this is not a bedroom tax, but a reduction of housing benefit.

But it is only a matter of time before they move on to homeowners and tenants not claiming housing benefit.

ie, a couple owning their own three bedroom house, deemed to only need one bedroom, being levied a tax on the 2 other bedrooms.

The same for anyone else with more bedrooms than deemed necessary.

Going backwards to the old window tax and chimney tax.

That is why you sometimes see old houses with window spaces bricked up.