Tony Blair was the one who decided that benefit claimants should manage their own money. Before that the rent portion used to be paid directly to the Landlord. Maybe if they went back to the old system, there would be less of the evictions due to unpaid rent. Just a thought. Some people can manage money. Others can't.
I don't know of anybody who actually works with benefits who thought that giving the rent money to the claimant was a good idea. I would suggest that those on benefit who struggle to manage their finances are the majority rather than a small minority. If they have the money which is supposed to be used for rent, but need food or clothes, or other items! they aren't likely to think of the longer term consequences.
I always went to bed and woke up with ice on the inside of the windows, come downstairs to a tiny fire. Stay in that room all day.
we used to dreeeeeeeeeeeeeam of ice just on the windows, when i was young we woke up entombed in ice and had to hack our way out of bed , lol #4Yorkshiremen
I always went to bed and woke up with ice on the inside of the windows, come downstairs to a tiny fire. Stay in that room all day.
When my aunt had to move in to sheltered accommodation, we took her old cottage on and did it up to make it more saleable for her. A surveyor came round to value the place before we started work and said it was un-mortgageable because it would be classed as uninhabitable. My aunt was well into her 80s when she moved out. It was a nice little cottage - OH and I lived in it for about 18 months (unimproved) while we did the ground works and other enabling stuff, it was fine - quite cosy. That it was deemed uninhabitable might seem like the nanny state, but I think the fact it was classed as sub-standard is a mark of some progress. We all CAN live as we did in decades past but it is better that we now expect some protection against damp and mildew, a reasonably hygienic space to prepare food and stairs that probably won't kill you.
It's no security against rental properties that are well below the minimum standard for a mortgage, but it does put some brakes in the system, however limited.
I guess a government less secure in it's majority would show a little more sensitivity. Theresa May tried to block Alison Saunders' automatic 'dame' award, presumably because she knew it would cause trouble. This administration doesn't care whether the public mind what they do. I expect inappropriate Honours lists will be the least of the problems that that causes over the next few years.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I designed the refit of an old stone cottage a few years ago and an old bloke had been living there totally off grid all his life. Most of the water was harvested off the roof into some dodgy old rain barrels, the bathroom was in a shed with no insulation anywhere, no electricity and a solid fuel fire to heat the whole house and cook in. He must have been as tough as shoe leather but it wasn't so long ago that a lot of people lived that way.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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I don't know of anybody who actually works with benefits who thought that giving the rent money to the claimant was a good idea. I would suggest that those on benefit who struggle to manage their finances are the majority rather than a small minority. If they have the money which is supposed to be used for rent, but need food or clothes, or other items! they aren't likely to think of the longer term consequences.
we used to dreeeeeeeeeeeeeam of ice just on the windows, when i was young we woke up entombed in ice and had to hack our way out of bed , lol
#4Yorkshiremen
It's no security against rental properties that are well below the minimum standard for a mortgage, but it does put some brakes in the system, however limited.
I guess a government less secure in it's majority would show a little more sensitivity. Theresa May tried to block Alison Saunders' automatic 'dame' award, presumably because she knew it would cause trouble. This administration doesn't care whether the public mind what they do. I expect inappropriate Honours lists will be the least of the problems that that causes over the next few years.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”