Tory spat over Cameron's plan to purge Central London of poor people

[MaryPoppins]

Am I missing something here? The new limit is 400 quid a week, or 1700 a month, or 20,000 a year. That sounds an awful lot of tax-free dosh.

That was my reaction, but I have no idea about house prices or rent daan sarf.

I was quite shocked to realise some people could currently be getting more than £400 per week housing benefit.

[TykeMerc]

When I saw PM Q's yesterday and heard the £20k limit it did make me wonder if HMG would be better off buying up properties to let out to the people on Housing Benefit.

£20k/year is a lot of cash in property terms and still quite a lot in the London area.

As Cameron said in PM Q's why should tax payers who couldn't dream of having £20k/year let alone >£20k for accomodation subsidise benefits claimants for properties at that cost level?

[GreenLabel]

Surely they can do f*** all from anywhere. if they are getting a free house then it should be somewhere cheap. If their housing benefit is limited to 400 a week then they will have to find somewhere that meets their needs for that rate. So out of London it is. Also, why do they need to be in London.....they are not working. It's not like they have a commute!

WHS. London is an expensive city. If you choose to live there, don't ask the rest of us to pay for you.

[MaryPoppins]

Surely they can do f*** all from anywhere. if they are getting a free house then it should be somewhere cheap. If their housing benefit is limited to 400 a week then they will have to find somewhere that meets their needs for that rate. So out of London it is. Also, why do they need to be in London.....they are not working. It's not like they have a commute!

Family, support, consistency for kids - etc. For those Londoners born and bred and out of work due to circumstances beyond their control, this must be hard to accept.

[AtW]

this must be hard to accept.

Tough £^$%$ - go get a job, any job - if you did not have one for a long time be grateful you can have *any* house paid for yet alone one that costs so much. It's crazy that is even possible - £1600+ per month is NEW LIMIT wtf, if you can't get used to commuting to get a job like millions of people do every day then you don't deserve any money at all.

[Doggy Styles]

Yes you are. £1700 a month is a mere pittance to pay for the rent of a London house.

Is it the taxpayer's job to subsidise rental costs to enable the poorest people to live in the most expensive places in the country?

It's bad enough for those who are trying to pay their own way. People are constantly being priced out of areas all over the country, due to gentrification, holiday homes, inflated house prices, etc.

[DimPrawn]

Family, support, consistency for kids - etc. For those Londoners born and bred and out of work due to circumstances beyond their control, this must be hard to accept.

Force the ****ers to live in Swindon.

[shaunbhoy]

See my last post above.
HTH.

Now why would anyone want to do that? It is guaranteed to be as spectacularly unimaginitive as the previous 19k+.

[Alf W]

So, the maths. £500 per month gets you around £100k mortgage over 25 years. £550 for a BTL.

So for £1700 you could get £350k to spend on a 4 bed property. A free house from the state.

Errr, I'm just off down the estate agents.

Plus, cue every Rigsby BTL-er in the country now stacking up their rents to the new maximum limits where they have tennants on the sosh.

[Mich the Tester]

Tough £^$%$ - go get a job, any job - if you did not have one for a long time be grateful you can have *any* house paid for yet alone one that costs so much. It's crazy that is even possible - £1600+ per month is NEW LIMIT wtf, if you can't get used to commuting to get a job like millions of people do every day then you don't deserve any money at all.