The Student Room Group

Should families under 25 lose housing benefit?

Scroll to see replies

Original post by OU Student
Unlikely now; as housing benefit is based on the 30th percentile. Meaning that if you look at 10 houses, your housing benefit would only cover the cost of 3.


Most areas have a superfluity of housing for single people or couples (which I thought was the focus here[?]). You are right that it takes some effort and what you get may not be ideal, but it is almost always doable. People have to try to live within their means and if their means extend only as far as the 30th percentile then they need to try to fall below that and that is something many people make the conscious choice not to do for x or y reason. Most housing that accepts housing benefit will be lower-end as you will be aware :smile:

For the record I have personally and as part of a family lived on housing benefit - just in case anyone assumed I have no idea what I'm saying. :tongue:
Original post by paddy__power
Most areas have a superfluity of housing for single people or couples (which I thought was the focus here[?]).


Most places do not have a "superfluity" of housing for anyone though, let alone young people. Indeed there is quite a large shortage of such housing that is affordable.
Reply 102
Not read all of this thread, only halfway through page 7, but people keep mentioning moving in with other relatives if your parents are not an option.

Even if moving in with them us viable, why should it be their problem? Why should they have to bear the expense and make room for someone else.

You can't really argue a moral point on this about looking after family, because there are dozens of reasons that the morality could be flipped.

I know the majority of family would help if they could, but I don't see why they should have to

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my E15i
Original post by WelshBluebird
Most places do not have a "superfluity" of housing for anyone though, let alone young people. Indeed there is quite a large shortage of such housing that is affordable.


Rooms in shared houses. Always available and affordable. You may have to move to the nearest town but that will likely be it.

Larger towns pretty much always have youth hostels as well....
Original post by paddy__power
Rooms in shared houses. Always available and affordable. You may have to move to the nearest town but that will likely be it.

Larger towns pretty much always have youth hostels as well....


Seriously, many places have a shortage of affordable housing. A massive shortage. That is pretty well known and well documented so I am surprised you are arguing against it.
And really, youth hostels? Not a long term solution is it.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by WelshBluebird
And if:
1 - Their parents are abusive.
2 - Their parents say no.
3 - Their parents live in an area that will be hugely detrimental to their chance of getting a job.
4 - Their parents simply cannot take them in (maybe they have downsized after the person left for uni).
5 - They have a low paid job and such need help to pay rent. Forcing them back to their parents will make unemployment worse.


For the first point, I was wondering the same thing, but apparently under the new proposal housing benefit will be given to those people as it would be considered an exceptional circumstance.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
Original post by OU Student
And live where, exactly? Not everyone has relatives who can take them in.


I was thinking this too.

I don't know what my economic situation would be like in a few years time when I graduate, but I cannot move back to my parents' house.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
Original post by Elipsis
So let me get this straight; The 18-25 category no longer get anything - no help with uni costs, very few jobs available, and no housing benefit, but they are the ones who are expected to pick up the tab for everything for everyone else? The families, the elderly etc? I am going to avoid all the tax I can at all costs. Even if saving Β£1 means I give Β£1 to an accountant instead of the government. I say this as a conservative.


I had similar thoughts yesterday too.

It's almost as if young people are being punished for the previous government's failings.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
Original post by WelshBluebird
Seriously, many places have a shortage of affordable housing. A massive shortage. That is pretty well known and well documented so I am surprised you are arguing against it.
And really, youth hostels? Not a long term solution is it.


I don't disagree with you but I think we are talking about "affordable housing" as a different thing. The argument I was making is that housing benefit is sufficient to put a roof over your head if you are not picky, and you can live in youth hostels for the most part until you are 25 at which time you are entitled to a higher rate of benefits and finding somewhere to live is even easier. The argument was not about "long-term solutions" - most people don't intend to live forever on housing benefit. To be fair though, while I have lived and rented in various places in the country I have never lived in the north and everything may be very different there but they will still have many rooms to rent if not complete dwellings.
Original post by OU Student
We really need someone who lives in the real world in power. Not people who have been handed everything on a plate and earn 4 times the average wage.


Exactly.

I am also really fed up of Cameron saying that we are all in this together, when really we aren't.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
Original post by fire2burn
I doubt they'll go ahead with it because it will face huge opposition from Labour, Lib Dems, homeless charities, etc.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to move back home should they lose their job and require support. They might have parents who have alcohol/drugs issues, parents who are in prison or have moved abroad, or parents who just point blank refuse to take them back due to family breakup, etc.

In the long term these proposals could lead to tens of thousands being left homeless and the resulting increase in begging/crime that would bring would far outweigh the costs providing housing benefit. All in all silly proposals which I don't see going anywhere. A flip flop policy which will be withdrawn at a later date.


Exactly. I agree with all of your post.

I don't have the luxury of moving back after graduation. I wish I did, but I don't.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
Original post by Jam'
I live alone and have received housing benefit to support this since 16-years-old. I come from an extremely intolerant, abusive and vile pair of parents.

I also stayed in school throughout this time and have just finished my A Levels and hope to go to uni to study Maths. If this was in place at the time I ran away from home and social services intervened I may very well have killed myself. It's a stupid plan forcing people to live with people in situations that just don't work out.

My parents are crazy-religious folk and tried to force that down my throat - I can't handle it.


See, this is the one example which illustrates the one of the reasons why housing benefit should not be scrapped.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830
there is one answer, but the government is so committed to its 'free market' (right...) philosophy it doesnt get the oxygen of discussion. build and run council-owned housing. The reason housing benefit costs so much is down to the inflated rents demanded by buy-to-let 'social' landlords...
Original post by paddy__power
I don't disagree with you but I think we are talking about "affordable housing" as a different thing. The argument I was making is that housing benefit is sufficient to put a roof over your head if you are not picky, and you can live in youth hostels for the most part until you are 25 at which time you are entitled to a higher rate of benefits and finding somewhere to live is even easier. The argument was not about "long-term solutions" - most people don't intend to live forever on housing benefit. To be fair though, while I have lived and rented in various places in the country I have never lived in the north and everything may be very different there but they will still have many rooms to rent if not complete dwellings.



I noticed the bit in bold, which i feel is inaccurate. Most HB claims come from those in work, particularly those on low-pay who are required to live in high-cost areas.
Surely if this goes ahead there will be a rise in the number of under 25 homeless people, just like there was when Margaret Thatcher cut such benefits for 16 and 17 year olds.

I for one, would have to be homeless, as I don't have a family to take me in. How is this fair?
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by paddy__power
I don't disagree with you but I think we are talking about "affordable housing" as a different thing.


Not really. Affordabe housing in the way I am using it is simply housing (be it houses, flats or rooms) that young people, possibly in part time work or who are unemployed through no fault of their own can afford to live in.

Original post by paddy__power

The argument I was making is that housing benefit is sufficient to put a roof over your head if you are not picky


But we are talking about a possibility of not being able to claim housing benefit.
Plus, quite often people DO have to be picky, because a lot of people who claim it are actually working, so NEED to live in a certain area.

Original post by paddy__power

and you can live in youth hostels for the most part until you are 25


Are you offering to yourself? No? So why should you expect others to?

Original post by paddy__power

most people don't intend to live forever on housing benefit.


It depends. As I said, an awful lot of claimants are those who are actually in work, but whose wages are so low they need extra help.
Reply 116
I initially thought it was a good idea, but then I looked into it a bit more- what about those who really need it, and its difficult enough for young people to get onto the housing market these days. Besides, I think it's a little hypocritical for David Cameron to say that we "should work for it" when he himself has probably had everything handed to him on a silver platter- an education at Eton and Oxbridge and has probably got to where he is in parliment through Daddy's wealth and connections.......
Reply 117
I'd like to say yes they should, but in reality, no they shouldn't.
Original post by paniking_and_not_revising
This government has taught me that if I ever get the chance, I will leave this country.

I just feel like us younger generations aren't wanted here. The adults take everything they can, leave us with nothing and then have the gall to call us: lazy, apathetic, selfish, spoilt, dumb, unable to spell or speak English, useless, rude... while completely forgetting that we're going to be the ones paying for their retirement.


:congrats: I'm leaving as well.
Original post by ArcadiaHouse
:congrats: I'm leaving as well.


Which country will you go to?

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-S5830

Quick Reply

Latest