The Student Room Group

Should families under 25 lose housing benefit?

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Reply 20
I think it should be assessed on a case by case basis if practical. If you are young family or single parent then i think housing benefit is fair enough.

However I know people who dropped out of uni and used JSA and housing benefit so they could continue to live like students. They did this when they had empty bedrooms at their parents' houses about 10 miles away. That does not seem like a good way to use the benefits system.
Reply 21
Original post by Aphotic Cosmos
This government really is a fracking joke.


Original post by Stasiaxx
Sadly.


This is a proposal for what might happen after the next election should the Tories win the next election, it is not something this Government may introduce.
Reply 22
Can't find their arse from their elbow. Aside from the fact that most recipients of housing benefit are in work, doing low waged jobs in high cost areas such as london, not every young person has somewhere to go if they haven't got housing benefit. Not to mention it really discourages people from moving to other areas for work if accommodation costs a lot in those areas- so much for 'making work pay'.

If the government wanted to save money on housing benefits, it would build lots of council owned and run homes for people to rent out when they are in work. Im sure someone will point out 'the country's broke, we can't afford it' - well, can we really afford the inflated sums of money being given out by councils to 'social' landlords for inadequate properties on poor contracts? That is where most of the money is wasted....
Reply 23
Ironically enough it was the Tories who introduced Housing Benefit back in the 80s to move away from state solutions to ''market'' solutions.

In 1979 rent rebates were 12% of all government spend on housing. By 1997 Housing Benefit had grown to 69% of all government spend on housing. After 97 it skyrocketed under New Labour. It was under the Tories that the government started spending money on subsiding landlords (it was also the Tories who did away with rent acts leaving landlords to set rents as high as they liked) rather than spending money on, err, building houses. New Labour did not reverse any of this, they just tarted social housing up a bit without doing anything to address the overall imbalance in spend
So it's not ok for the people in the country to discriminate but alright for the government to do it and we're all in this together. By all they mean if you're young and not well off.
I think that there should be a lot more questions asked before people of ANY age get ANY kind of benefit. My friends who have just graduated from uni have decided that they want their own place, so they've got one, and are paying for it with benefits. There is no reason that they couldn't have lived with their parents for a bit longer, they just "felt like" moving out, which is ridiculous, and what I assume the government is trying to avoid.

But someone of 24 who might have had a job before and is just going through a bit of a hard time should NOT be punished. Nor should an 18 year old who is trying their absolute hardest to get a job, and CAN'T live with their parents for whatever reason.

This "one size fits all" thing that the government has going on is ridiculous, and in my opinion this is part of the reason we're in such a mess.
Reply 26
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.
Sorry chums (Cameron, Osborne etc), not everyone has Daddy's millions to fall back on. "We're all in it together..." total BS.
Reply 28
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
I think that there should be a lot more questions asked before people of ANY age get ANY kind of benefit. My friends who have just graduated from uni have decided that they want their own place, so they've got one, and are paying for it with benefits. There is no reason that they couldn't have lived with their parents for a bit longer, they just "felt like" moving out, which is ridiculous, and what I assume the government is trying to avoid.

But someone of 24 who might have had a job before and is just going through a bit of a hard time should NOT be punished. Nor should an 18 year old who is trying their absolute hardest to get a job, and CAN'T live with their parents for whatever reason.

This "one size fits all" thing that the government has going on is ridiculous, and in my opinion this is part of the reason we're in such a mess.



what if your friends from uni need housing benefit to afford a place to live near low-wage work in an expensive area?
Original post by Richiboi
what if your friends from uni need housing benefit to afford a place to live near low-wage work in an expensive area?


Perfectly fine- except they don't want to work, and have no intention of doing so in the near future.
Reply 30
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
Perfectly fine- except they don't want to work, and have no intention of doing so in the near future.


coming out of university? i find that hard to believe :confused:
When the going gets tough D Cam just picks a new part of the welfare system to target in order to distract the masses. It's ridiculous.

Why should age come in to it? There are people taking the welfare system for granted, we know that, so just bloody well target them.
Original post by Richiboi
coming out of university? i find that hard to believe :confused:


You find it hard to believe that there are some people who would rather continue living the fun alcohol fuelled life of a student than go out and have to work 40 hours a week for the same amount of money? Okay..
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 £1 means I give £1 to an accountant instead of the government. I say this as a conservative.


The economy ****ed up, and now they expect the younger people to pick up the tab, they got to have their care paid for, their pensions, everything, and Cameron is willingly helping them.

What a complete ****ing bell-end.

This isn't a party issue this is a generational issue, the young are simply getting a raw sour deal of things while the middle-aged and older are taking what they can.

I wouldn't be surprised if the riots happen again, but this time involve a lot more 'middle class' young people. A country that turns on it's own future (youth) is a dead walking one.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 34
Original post by Studentus-anonymous
The economy ****ed up, and now they expect the younger people to pick up the tab, they got to have their care paid for, their pensions, everything, and Cameron is willingly helping them.

What a complete ****ing bell-end.

This isn't a party issue this is a generational issue, the young are simply getting a raw sour deal of things while the middle-aged and older are taking what they can.

I wouldn't be surprised if the riots happen again, but this time involve a lot more 'middle class' young people. A country that turns on it's own future (youth) is a de


I am pretty sure I will be moving to Germany pretty soon. They are a country that is reasonably conservative in the right ways, and reasonably socially liberal in all the right ways. They see that everything should be geared towards the young. What's the point in putting so much effort and money into making sure they get to 18 being the best people they can be, then pulling the rug out from under them?
Original post by Snagprophet
Not sure why anyone under 25 would have kids.


Nor am I. However, that's not really relevant to the thread.
Original post by The Socktor
Nor am I. However, that's not really relevant to the thread.


Well it is because if they didn't have kids without the finances to pay for them then they need benefits and are therefore a burden for the taxpayer.
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.


I didn't even know you could claim it at that age. But well, I hope things worked out well for you. :smile:
Original post by Snagprophet
Well it is because if they didn't have kids without the finances to pay for them then they need benefits and are therefore a burden for the taxpayer.


For some people it happened by accident; e.g. their condom might have ripped, they were pissed out of their minds, perhaps even that they were raped. You can't tackle them all with same brush (or whatever the expression is). There's always abortion, of course, but there's a legal limit to how late you can wait and the individual might be religious or something which might at least make them less decisive about it.
Reply 39
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 £1 means I give £1 to an accountant instead of the government. I say this as a conservative.


Props to you.

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