Grant Rant

[Kelly450]

Laura, your comment that everyone has the choice to live in a council home, private rented or get a mortgage is incorrect. The council and housing association won't even put us on their register as we both work full time. I have no choice but to live in private rented accommodation (unless we both give up work) and paying £750 a month in rent makes it hard to save for a mortgage deposit. The annoying thing is we know a couple in the same apartment block who are on housing association and don't work. Their rent is over £300 cheaper than ours and they have help with the council tax.

I second this. A few people told me to look at council homes to get cheaper rent which we need now. When I had a look, we are not entitled because we actually go out to work every day.

So we also have no choice but to rent privately or live on the street. . Ridiculous

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

[Dotty_woman]

Are both you and your OH in work at the moment then Laura? I'm a bit confused why this is an option for you but not other people on here unless it's the good old postcode lottery again.

 

[sophiestars]

Yep us too, if we had a choice to live in council accomadation we would jump at the chance! But unfortunetly we dont as partner works full time and although we are on the waiting list (have been for 3 years lol) when we bid we are always below the 100 mark priority wise! the council do not class you as high priority unless you are homeless or on benefits as wrong as it is that is simply how it is and we have got used to that fact! We pay £700 a month with no help to rent privately its either that or have nowhere to live xx

 

[Geekachublog]

Laura, your comment that everyone has the choice to live in a council home, private rented or get a mortgage is incorrect. The council and housing association won't even put us on their register as we both work full time. I have no choice but to live in private rented accommodation (unless we both give up work) and paying £750 a month in rent makes it hard to save for a mortgage deposit. The annoying thing is we know a couple in the same apartment block who are on housing association and don't work. Their rent is over £300 cheaper than ours and they have help with the council tax.

I second this. A few people told me to look at council homes to get cheaper rent which we need now. When I had a look, we are not entitled because we actually go out to work every day.

So we also have no choice but to rent privately or live on the street. . Ridiculous

Sent from my GT-I9300

I'm with both of you on this, we were on the council list when we lived with my OH's mum for a while but they wrote to us to say they were taking us off the list as we could afford to privately rent because we both work full time. Housing association waiting list is 3 years.

We cannot afford to save a deposit for a mortgage, we saw a mortgage advisor and we would need about £30k, we don't have that kind of money.

Privately renting is our only option at the moment and the prices of renting privately have rocketed as landlords know that people can't get housing any other way.

 

[sophiestars]

^ exactly same as us
xx

 

[twinkle90]

Same! Me and OH signed to the council and local housing accosiations. And because we both work they wont we arent entitled. We pay everything ourselves with no help at all. And just have to make do with the money we have left when rent bills food shopping etc is paid. We arent entitaled to working tax credit because im under 25. So got to wait another 2 years for that.

Im sorry if i offend anyone by saying this, but no wonder people dont work because all the money they are entitled to. These days we are all better off not working and thats a huge shame. But i cant see myself not working. I know people get who get their rent paid for. My local council pay 400 towards rent every month. And get every benefit they can. So all this money jobless people get, its not motivating them to even go out looking for jobs. Because of this everyone else suffers.

 

[twinkle90]

Laura, your comment that everyone has the choice to live in a council home, private rented or get a mortgage is incorrect. The council and housing association won't even put us on their register as we both work full time. I have no choice but to live in private rented accommodation (unless we both give up work) and paying £750 a month in rent makes it hard to save for a mortgage deposit. The annoying thing is we know a couple in the same apartment block who are on housing association and don't work. Their rent is over £300 cheaper than ours and they have help with the council tax.

I second this. A few people told me to look at council homes to get cheaper rent which we need now. When I had a look, we are not entitled because we actually go out to work every day.

So we also have no choice but to rent privately or live on the street. . Ridiculous

Sent from my GT-I9300

I'm with both of you on this, we were on the council list when we lived with my OH's mum for a while but they wrote to us to say they were taking us off the list as we could afford to privately rent because we both work full time. Housing association waiting list is 3 years.

We cannot afford to save a deposit for a mortgage, we saw a mortgage advisor and we would need about £30k, we don't have that kind of money.

Privately renting is our only option at the moment and the prices of renting privately have rocketed as landlords know that people can't get housing any other way.

I got to agree with Geek on this..ive never actuslly thought about a morgage before but we had an opportunity to see an advisor so took it..i was gob smacked that they wanted 10k deposit. No way can we afford that. Friends if ours even mived out of their rented property and moved into their parents house to start saving for a mortgage. They even found it difficult and have considered to start renting again. Its ridiculous!!

 

[BevG]

yeah council wont even put us on the list cos my oh has a job, i didnt go back to work after DD1 as it wasnt worth it financially, my oh has a low wage job and earns just below 10 k a year, we get tax credits, just about qualify for working tax credits and get a whole 25 quid a week towards the rent off the council and 11 a week off the council tax. if i was a single mum on benefits my rent and tax would be paid, i would of got the grant (didnt qualify as i wasnt on benefits) would of got income support payments etc, as it is i managed to get jobseekers until my national insurance contributions ran out, then that stopped and the tax credit ppl now give us less money cos im not on JS anymore too. noone would hire me at 20 weeks pregnant when i had my last interviews so i stopped trying and just finished my college course and look after our daughter. i do find it ridiculous that if i could find a job i would get childcare paid for but they wont give us a little extra help to enable me to raise my own child. after this baby is born we will be entitled to a little more and i will be able to go to uni and train to be a nurse, hopefully i will get in and then be able to get a career to provide for my family as when i finish uni the kids will be school age

 

[tmesis]

These days we are all better off not working and thats a huge shame.

Sorry, but this simply isn't true. I work full time and my boyfriend works a little over 16 hours a week - together we earn £21,000 (me £17,000, him £4,000.) We pay £625 per month for our two bedroom flat and can comfortably save £250 a month. A year ago I was living in a one bed flat (rent £350 a month) and became unemployed. If I hadn't managed to find work I would have had to move out of that flat into a bedsit as the maximum housing I could receive was £56 a week (about £250 a month). Even then I'd have still had to top up the rent out of my £78 per week JSA as you can't get a bedsit round here for less than £60 a week. Anyhoo, point is, even with a fairly meager joint salary, boyfriend and I are considerably better off in work than out of work. We pay out more, but then, we can afford to.

 

[LauraMummyToBe]

Are both you and your OH in work at the moment then Laura? I'm a bit confused why this is an option for you but not other people on here unless it's the good old postcode lottery again.

Unfortunately not at the moment as we were made redundant BUT we were working full time when we were accepted for council housing. Maybe it depends on where you live in the country? :/ x

 

[tambo1976]

These days we are all better off not working and thats a huge shame.

Sorry, but this simply isn't true. I work full time and my boyfriend works a little over 16 hours a week - together we earn £21,000 (me £17,000, him £4,000.) We pay £625 per month for our two bedroom flat and can comfortably save £250 a month. A year ago I was living in a one bed flat (rent £350 a month) and became unemployed. If I hadn't managed to find work I would have had to move out of that flat into a bedsit as the maximum housing I could receive was £56 a week (about £250 a month). Even then I'd have still had to top up the rent out of my £78 per week JSA as you can't get a bedsit round here for less than £60 a week. Anyhoo, point is, even with a fairly meager joint salary, boyfriend and I are considerably better off in work than out of work. We pay out more, but then, we can afford to.

This exactly. There is not a chance that being anyone is better off unemployed. The pittance they give you to live on is actually laughable. I do understand that it may seem to others like the unemployed have it easy with a few freebies but I assure you that's not the case at all.

Every single week I have to basically work out to the very last pound what we can afford to spend on food. I never buy clothes full price, they are either in a sale or from a charity shop. All the things we needed for our baby were off eBay except the cot but even that was only £60 in a sale at mothercare. I could list so much that we struggle with but I won't bore you lol.

My last job was just a basic part time night job at tesco and I was substantially better off than I am now. My partner lost his job just before Christmas just gone and just cannot find another job because there are so few out there. Being unemployed is not fun. It's depressing, embarrassing, demoralising and boring and both me and my OH can't wait to find work again.

tapatalkin

 

[Lilmisshopeful]

The council here prefer working tenants so must be an area thing. I'm in a council house and other half is in the army. Most my friends are working and in council houses. I know a lot of people abuse the system out there and it's wrong but to say they get cheaper glasses and free prescriptions. Well the reason being they do and you don't is because you have more money. My mum always taught me to live by my means. When we have extra money it's all good if we don't no hard ship as I live by my means. I've been a single parent on benefits and part of a working couple as I am now and can see both sides. But the reason the help is there is because its needed. X

 

[Pippa1703]

I completely understand that but the frustration that started thid thread wasnt anger at what people get, its that those of us that work our fingers to the bone get no help whatsoever when we could really use it, especially after we throw so much of it at a tremendously flawed system

 

[twinkle90]

We work our backsides of and OUR tax money goes to the jobless. Thats not fair. Some people abuse the money system. Why is it fair that mist people get given 400 as part of rent and 500 to help being a first time mum. Why cant all of us get the grant?

 

[LauraMummyToBe]

We work our backsides of and OUR tax money goes to the jobless. Thats not fair. Some people abuse the money system. Why is it fair that mist people get given 400 as part of rent and 500 to help being a first time mum. Why cant all of us get the grant?

I totally agree with you, although I am on the benefit system I'm not one of those idiots that abuse it (neither is my OH) but I think EVERY new mother should get the grant not just us. If I could I'd share it with you unfortunate ladies. x

 

[Lilmisshopeful]

You pay into a system that one day you might need to use that's what it's for. The way they decide who gets it and who don't is by who has the money to buy those things without it. You work so you can buy you don't work so can't kinda thing. We pay a lot every month into the system but I've been in it before and might be again one day so I do what has to be done. Even if I was allowed to grant I wouldn't ask for it as I know we don't need it. We both work not the biggest wage by far but enough I can afford to save £500 over 9 months. Something I never could have done while on benefits x

 

[Littlesammy]

I completely agree Pippa. I appreciate that some people need more help than others, and that's what the benefits system is there for. What I don't understand is how you can have someone on benefits and someone who works, both with a similar disposable income but the one on benefits will get the grant and the one who works won't.

 

[Pippa1703]

I completely agree Pippa. I appreciate that some people need more help than others, and that's what the benefits system is there for. What I don't understand is how you can have someone on benefits and someone who works, both with a similar disposable income but the one on benefits will get the grant and the one who works won't.

Wss^^^

 

[tambo1976]

I remember a few years ago the government had the daft idea of opening up some kind of trust fund for newborns, I think they got £250 and then it was even topped up! I'm not 100% sure on this but I think that's what happened, I mean wtf? How many millions did they waste on that one. I'm also not sure if only newborns of the unemployed got it. It seems like after that major waste of cash fuck up they limited money that new parents were given as a grant to try and recoup there losses.

Basically though it's quite apparent that the system is totally flawed. Maybe if everybody had to actually pay money into the system at some point in there lives to receive anything back then there would be more money in the pot for those who genuinely need it and we wouldn't have every Tom, Dick and Harry floating to Great Britain to suck our system dry. It would also stop those who are working from feeling such resentment towards those on benefits because you know that the benefit recipient has actually put money in the pot in the past and isn't just a workshy lazy fecker after a free ride.

The trouble is that people blanket all the unemployed together when that it's unfair. There are thousands of different circumstances that can lead you onto the dreaded dole and if you have been a worker, like myself, for many years it is upsetting that people assume we are all skanky scum like off that programme "skint".

I do also believe that the grant should be for either everyone or no one because it is hard for anyone, working or not, to afford a baby. I do also believe that working moms should actually be MORE entitled to it for various different reasons, one of the main ones being that they are currently tax payers.

I could go on but I have a a joint to smoke and a big bottle of cider to swig



tapatalkin

 

[C0606]

Eesh, I'm just eligible. Thank heavens.