I've thought about that child benefit thing too a lot
You see? My salary is quite a bit under the £44,000 or wathever the limit is; but I think I earn enough to maintain a child if I had to. I'd have to stop buying some expensive things and traveling so much, but ey, everybody has to do sacrifices if they want something, so I wouldn't ask for child benefit.

About the house benefit, I don't understand it. Does it mean that the goverment gives people around £21,000 per year to spend in rent and that?
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:25, 3 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Rent, yes.
The Housing Benefit system just about works, but it does get abused like any system giving out free money. The decision to cap it at £400 per week is spot-on I reckon, and I'd be interested to hear an argument against it.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:29, Reply)

PER WEEK!
I'm going to go on the dole if I can get me a £400 a week house.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:32, Reply)

What would you get for £400 a week in Scouserland?

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:34, Reply)

2 x Mondeos, a lockup full of moody Sergio Tachhini,
a sawn-off and two illegal pitbulls, last time I checked.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:36, Reply)

ha. Sergio Tachini - haven't seen any of that around for years.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:37, Reply)

Or that, yes.

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:39, Reply)

Well, rent for a well-furnished-and-fancy-fittings-and-balcony-but-generic 2-bed flat is £750 per MONTH
That's what my mate pays
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:38, Reply)

If I rented out
my pokey 1928 red brick ex-council ground floor 1-bed unfurnished, I could get £1000 pcm for it.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:40, Reply)

Really?
Where do you live, in front of Buckingham Palace?
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:43, Reply)

It is stupidly expensive in London. In Kilburn (not a brilliant area to live) to buy a 2 bedroom flat would be around £425,000. A 3 bed with garden around £500,000
This sounds worringly like a Daily Heil comment. Sorry for that.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:49, Reply)

It's ok
I'm a MASSIVE RACIST, so I won't judge you. For the difference in price, I'd go for the 3bed+garden...

So, why do all these people have to live in London? And don't say it's because of work, because they don't work; and a lot of other people has to commute.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:54, Reply)

Because the begging opportunities are so good here.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:56, Reply)

I am not sure.
Telling people where to live and forcing them out en mass smells of pogroms to me though. In the 60's Londoners were given financial incentives to move to what were called "overspill towns" such as Basingstoke, Newbury & Reading. It may be more of an option to look at that again.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:57, Reply)

Borehamwood and Farnborough too.
Hahaha unlucky!
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:02, Reply)

Borehamwood. Eurgh. I have to go there once a month to see a client. It's a truly depressing place.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:03, Reply)

Well, it's not telling there where to live
It's telling them "we're giving you this money, which is quite reasonable, now, where would you like to live?"
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:09, Reply)

Agreed.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:12, Reply)

Really?
I am scared now. Maybe I am a MASSIVE RACIST after all.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:19, Reply)

Yeah, Boris Johnson was complaining that it'll mean an exodus from London
but christ, anyone who's living in a £1,600+ a month house should be able to sort a job out.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:35, Reply)

Exactly
Why am I going to have to commute for more than 1h to get to work every morning, while people on benefits can "afford" living right in the centre?
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:44, Reply)

I think you're right. I know of single people in London getting more than that at the moment which is ridiculous.
One in particular is having benefit paid to live in Notting Hill. They should move him somewhere cheaper - nothing drastic but at least to zone 2 or 3.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:33, Reply)

Exactly.
Benefit should be to support the worse-off, not maintain people's opulent lifestyles.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:43, Reply)

Definitely. The cost differential between what he gets now and should have to pay in somewhere like Willsden Green would pay for 2 rough sleepers to be in a hostel.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:47, Reply)

eepers to be in a hostel appers to give me a week's shagging in a a Travelodge near Bracknell
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:58, Reply)

I wouldn't go to Bracknell for a shag. Bloody awful place.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:00, Reply)

How about for a cormorant?

(Cave Duck, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:22, Reply)

Each borough its duty bound to house applicants, isn't it?
Inc Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:49, Reply)

Technically yes if you can prove you have a right to live in that borough. The bloke I'm talking about isn't British so he can't claim a right to have to live in Notting Hill.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:54, Reply)

To my mind
no-one has a 'right' to live in any borough apart from the right to do so BECAUSE YOU CAN AFFORD IT.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:01, Reply)

Agreed.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:04, Reply)

I read about a guy who has a family of 8 who's living in Notting Hill on benefits, it's pretty unfair

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:51, Reply)

That's what I thought
I think that's abusive. You pay around £800/month for a 3 bedroom detached house in Manchester; assume it's around £1200 in London; that's still a lot less than what they get!

I understand the Con-Lib saying that it's unfair that the working people can't afford a house in London, but the people on the dole can. I'm working, and I wouldn't dare spending that much money on my house! FFS!!
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:42, Reply)

FOUR HUNDRED POUND A WEEK?!!
*fashions weaponry from discarded copies of the Daily Mail*
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:13, Reply)

I know
that's almost twice as much what I'm paying at the moment!

However, everybody gets very upset with the benefits thing and all that, but I think where the country is really losing money is with tax dodgers, like Vodafone.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:18, Reply)

Yes, corporate tax dodgers are worse
My MD is guilty of using tax havens. He wasn't happy when I suggested the UK should invade Jersey, therefore abolishing it as a tax haven.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:29, Reply)

Your goverment should start giving good example
and stopping the tax haven in Gibraltar. It's not exactly a tax haven, though, it's more like No-one's land, with no law and no order.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:37, Reply)

There are families in London
who have 6+ kids, do no work and are being housed in million pound houses/flats. Admittedly there aren't that many of them, but it really is a fucking disgrace. Unfortunately these parasites tend to be from the immigrant communities and this horrendous exploitation of the generosity of our benefits culture invariably ends up splashed all over the Daily Mail and is thus grist to the BNP's mill.

The lily-livered, chickneshit BNP. They don't go nearly far enough, right Aber?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:34, Reply)

Right Monty
All inmigrants should be sent back to their countries or killed. No, wait a moment... that's not good for me either...

I don't think it's all inmigrants fault. All the massive families that I see on the street, with young parents and 4-6 kids running and screaming around, are white, British families.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:47, Reply)

Haha, Monty's plan is flawed.

( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:51, Reply)

That's because the swarthy foreign ones
are holed up in their massive free houses eating smelly food and making bombs. You don't get to see them.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:52, Reply)

I think there are just as many white chavvy families abusing the system as any other
the system shouldn't be able to be so easily abused though, that's what needs fixing.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:52, Reply)

They're all paddies and slavs.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:54, Reply)

Aye, begorrah.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:08, Reply)

You're right there
It doesn't matter who's doing it. The system shouldn't allow it to happen. I don't have any kids right now, not because I don't want, but because I couldn't afford them. If you can't afford them, don't have them. I can understand a couple having one or 2 mistakes, but 4? or 8?
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:57, Reply)

It's a career path for many in the lower classes.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:00, Reply)

I'm all for making people get a licence to have kids
you should have to take a competent parental test before you're allowed to have kids.

This will take place in my Orwellian future, it'll be double plus good.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:02, Reply)

Your plan,
coupled with my 'compulsory sterilisation of inferior racial groups and spackers' could turn this world around within two generations.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:07, Reply)

Don't forget gypsies. I suppose they count as an inferior racial group and spackers though.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:09, Reply)

wow you really hate those gypsies eh?

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:14, Reply)

Damn right. My next holiday will be spent burning caravans.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:15, Reply)

They're cunts.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:23, Reply)

Does "small geek b3tan" count as an inferior racial group?
Please say yes, we can't afford to go private.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:09, Reply)

Oh he definitely qualifies for a 'mercy snip'
Midgets are 'front of the queue'.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:14, Reply)

Let's get Applebite onside as well,
she has an excellent contingency plan for if a virus takes over. It involves not giving the vaccine to people with a low IQ.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:13, Reply)

A comedian I saw the other night said something similar
There are too many people in the world, Hitler had the right idea BUT was stupid in picking one group. Fuck creed, colour, nationality and faith, just kill the stupid people.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:16, Reply)

+cripples.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:17, Reply)

I subscribe to this idea.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:23, Reply)

and the fatties
maybe set it up like Running Man where you get hunted. The stupid, fat and crippled would be the first to go.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:36, Reply)

I don't like this
I'm a fatty.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:37, Reply)

Fuck right off!
You are most certainly not a fatty!
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:39, Reply)

You see?
I used to think like you. Then I met one of the most wonderful girls in the world: sweet, helpful, clever, hard working, pretty... she's a fantastic friend and very good company. Her mother and father, on the other hand, are the type of people I would have forbbiden to have any kids. Alcoholics, waste of money, scum.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:11, Reply)

How dare you talk about my parents like that.

( girlinthehole, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:13, Reply)

:D
Your parents are not scum, dear; and I haven't even met them yet :)

However, I understand the misunderstanding, as you're lovely and all those other things I said.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:21, Reply)

it was a stroke of genius by the previous government
to change the system so that housing benefits were paid to the tenant instead of directly to the landlord. here, you've got no money. have a massive cheque, we trust you to cash it and pay it to your landlord, not spunk it on plasma screen televisions and designer clothes that you deserve when you don't work for them.

also to change the law again, as a consequence of low council-housing stock, so that there is a statutory formula that landlords can use to squeeze much more cash out of councils who are paying to house these families than they would get if they let their houses on the private market. eg foxtons valued my flat at £850 a week. allow for foxtons' wild exaggeration, and it's probably worth £750 a week on the private market. i then go to the statutory calculator and realise i can get £1,000 a week if the council put tenants in there at the tax-payers' expense.

ridiculous!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:24, Reply)

What? Really?
But, but, but...!!!

Oh, the day had started so well and I'm so upset now!
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:29, Reply)

i know
that's why you now see stories about non-working families with hundreds of children living in 8 bedroom mansions at £3,000 per week. well done gordon/tony, that was a truly special piece of legislation.

the problem is, that sort of benefit relies on people being honest and hardworking, and only claiming when they need to/are genuinely disabled. but far too many people aren't like that and will rape and milk a system that should only be there for those in genuine need.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:39, Reply)

Child Benefit was introduced as money for the primary carer, usually the mother
as they were often in a position where they weren't earning money and may well have been in a relationship where all finance was controlled by their partner. Child Benefit was a way of addressing that - as a universal benefit it could well be of use across the board for people in need of cash (possibly to escape a relationship in which they were financially dependent).

Agreed, I won't need Child Benefit once I'm back at work, but right now it comes in very useful.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:53, Reply)

+ for buying gin

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:56, Reply)

You see, that's the difference
I understand some help to mothers or fathers, while their babies are too young, but then, the parents should go back to work. Right, there is a whole world out there with different cases, and single parents, and that; but child benefit shouldn't be used as a salary, as a reason to stop working. Having kids and bringing them up, is not a job that the goverment should be paying.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 8:59, Reply)

Child benefit is £20.30 a week
so not really a salary...
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:00, Reply)

But add it to housing benefit and income support or unemployment benefit (plus not having to pay council tax) and you're looking at a weekly amount that some people live very comfortably on.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:02, Reply)

Oh, I see
So, how come there is people saying they get around £42,000/year for having 5 kids, and that they prefer to have more kids rather than going back to work? Do they get more money for something else?
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:02, Reply)

they will also be getting housing benefit
and things like income support. They would have to go for every benefit they possibly could to get that amount.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:04, Reply)

And on top of that
not paying taxes. It's a good bussiness, it is.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:12, Reply)

When my parents kicked us out, I had the child benefit transferered to me for my little sister.
I used to give her the money, and she went down the pub with it. She was 15 at the time.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:02, Reply)

Is your surname 'Twist', by any chance?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:04, Reply)

No, thank fuck, I have a proper name,
Not a dickensian one.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:14, Reply)

Ey. Richard Ensian is my real name!

(Cave Duck, Tue 2 Nov 2010, 9:26, Reply)