Bedroom Tax

[marje]

So, there's been a suicide because of the 'bedroom tax'. Poor woman couldn't afford the £80 per month for 2 empty bedrooms when her children left home. How many more before it's abolished?

[jim360]

"8. it is a tax, as it is the removal of a subsidy."

Agree with pretty much everything really except this. It is not a tax, as a tax is a charge imposed on money earned or owned. This is a reduction in benefit, or the removal or a subsidy, and cannot then be called a tax.

[albaqwerty]

icg, well said and I agree.

Especially with point number 1.

[sherrardk]

Magsmay - 'but lets leave it to the 15 year old experts and armchair psychologists' - did you have to get a separate qualification in patronising or was it part of your degree?

[emmie]

just thought would throw this in, rents in the capital, and this was on the BBC news just recently, have risen 8 times the rate of inflation. Some might be able to afford 500 quid a week, but not anyone i know, in fact no where near that, and social housing rent have risen considerably over the last few years.

[ladybirder]

Yes em but it might mean a family, man wife two children who had been living in some B&B dump could move in.

Me, I would make new friends as I have done since moving to Brighton & Hove. I am a pensioner and I'm not helpless as some on here and in the press seem to be viewing old people, even though the woman in question is not old.

[woofgang]

sherrardk I love your answer!

[ladybirder]

Em, this is not meant to be rude at all but by your posts on here over a few years, it sounds as if you hate where you live now.

[emmie]

fine if you have no family in the area, but quite honestly if people have an established network of support they might well find it hard to move anywhere.

[emmie]

i don't hate it, i don't care for the way it has turned out as it's now something of a ghetto, that is not the same thing. And believe me we have been here a very long time, and have had no choice in moving.

[Sharingan]

Don't lets turn this into another one of your slanging matches Mags, this is a sensible thread in News, so let's try to behave eh?

[jim360]

It's a sensible thread in which talk of the benefit in question got lost under a massive debate about whether or not it was rational to kill yourself.

[lcg]

it's not about what people want, it is about what they can afford. just because you live in a council house doesn't mean that you should a) have one for life; and b) can sit in a 3 bed house when you live on your own. i would like to live in a penthouse by the sea.....but i can't bloody afford it. why should some people just 'expect' stuff? i disagree with the most disabled people being hit by this problem (who cannot work, for example), but anyone else is fair game, i'm afraid. if they can't afford it, they should move.

[emmie]

actually no, it was a spat that has been going on for some time, not just on this thread.

[Sharingan]

It's a thread jim about the lady who DID kill herself in your opinion because she was mentally ill in my opinion because of the 'bedroom tax'. Whether it's rational to kill yourself is actually pretty key to the whole topic.

[emmie]

it was in my opinion the straw that broke the camels back. Only herself, the family and her doctors would know her mental health status, all this second guessing is a waste of time.

[chrisgel]

Magsmay - Jim360
You're good I'll give you that. Magsmay where in this or any other article does it say she was depressed. Where in my post did I say that I thought people that who suffered from depression were mental. Nice spin.
Jim360 // it doesn't mean that the Government should change its policy because of this one case//
I never said it did. I said that SHE blamed the government. If that is unsettling to you it's tough. No amount of posturing and protesting will change that.
As regards //I have already explained that there was an alternative route she could have taken that would have provided the financial support she needed//
It has already been revealed in a previous case that any financial assistance there may be is strictly limited and for a short period only.
I am totally disinterested in politics in this case. I think that this woman and her son deserve some measure of sympathy and not to have her stated motives and reasons picked over and analysed.

[jim360]

Again, she had other options. Even if it can be rational to kill yourself, that surely requires that there are not better options available. Such as applying for the support she needed, or at the very least not walking out in front of a truck and scarring the driver.

[emmie]

chrisgel, entirely agree

[Anngel]

I am sure I am not alone on here. Me and my husband get by. We have a mortgage and pay taxes. My children have left home. If we could no longer pay the mortgage we would expect to move house. My taxes are helping to support people who are on benefits, who have never struggled to pay a mortgage. Why should they not have to move if they do not need the rooms any more? . There is massive cost to the government purse providing b&B cramped accommodation to people who would love to have a proper house to bring up their families. What is wrong is that the idea of an elderly person being shifted to where they "know no-one" is such a bad thing. The provision of nice housing in protected/supported developments means that every elderly person should have a whole pool of new friends. This is not available enough.

[albaqwerty]

chrisgel, I ain't disagreeing with you, but as there is 'help' out there, it's knowing how to access it.