Conservatives discuss whether to remove housing benefit from under 25s

[Phanerothyme 12]

It ain't happening. Not in coalition at any rate.

[I1L2T3 10]

But don't go sticking your head in the sand!........many in this country need weaning off benefits,as well as those on big bonuses and obscene pensions,you know it and I know it,not the complete answer but it has to start somewhere!

 

My head isn't in the sand. I know there is abuse of the system but there are better ways to deal with that than turning huge swathes of society into scapegoats for problems caused by others.

[mort 10]

Keep it civil and refrain from slinging insults around please . If you can't do that then I'll be more than happy to suspend your account for you.

[Agrajag 10]

I remember the last time I was out of work, I was constantly hassled by the Job Centre to show exactly what I was doing to find work, under the threat of having my benefits stopped.

 

Maybe keeping track of so many job seekers is more difficult since many of the people who used to do that are now looking for jobs themselves.

 

Personally, I see this speech by Cameron as way of distracting attention from the tax evaders (or avoiders), who are far worse in my opinion than the so-called spongers. At least social security benefits get pumped straight back into the British economy and not into some off-shore bank account.

[Gamadar 10]

Some people are born in such circumstances that there is little choice and opportunity for them. Then Cameron comes along spouting rubbish and pretending that they are masters of their own destiny. They are not! Cameron does not know any answers as he cannot even understand the questions. He is a born and bred multi millionaire tory boy who knows nothing about real life.

[southcoast 10]

There is no joined up thinking in these proposals,he talks about time limits on JSA but the fact is there are precious few jobs to go round,but at the same time he lets in a quarter of a million immigrants every year who will readily work for peanuts and deprive the British people of jobs,if your going to time limit JSA stop letting in millions of immigrants and then maybe there will be enough jobs to go round.

[Agrajag 10]

The point about the proposal that the something for nothing lefties choose to ignore is that this will only affect under 25s. It's not unreasonable to expect anyone who can't afford a place of their own to stay at home until they can. Why should the state pay for people to have something they can't afford? I can't afford a Bentley. Should tax payers be forced to buy me one? Perhaps if Labour had built some housing we wouldn't have the problem AND if the state wasn't forking out for every Tom, Dick and Abdullah to have their own place rents wouldn't be going up. If the demand is choked off by the state not paying for it rents would actually fall.

 

The rules of supply and demand would say that if the country had an over abundance of affordable housing then house prices would drop, catastrophically.

 

Any government, left or right has to strike a balance: enough houses to go around, but just enough so people have to fight over them to keep prices high.

 

Would you still support a mass house building programme if it meant that your house could lose up to 50% of its value?

 

It's interesting to note that the population of the UK is rising by 0.7% per year, yet the rise in the numbers of dwellings is only 0.5%

[I1L2T3 10]

The rules of supply and demand would say that if the country had an over abundance of affordable housing then house prices would drop, catastrophically.

 

Any government, left or right has to strike a balance: enough houses to go around, but just enough so people have to fight over them to keep prices high.

 

Would you still support a mass house building programme if it meant that your house could lose up to 50% of its value?

 

It's interesting to note that the population of the UK is rising by 0.7% per year, yet the rise in the numbers of dwellings is only 0.5%

 

Nice post. The fundamental reason why HB has got out of control is a shortage of affordable housing to rent/buy, and artifically high prices. What we are seeing now is the reult of various policies from right and left over the last 30 years.

 

The blame for this clearly cannot be fairly lumped onto one group of society or another.

 

No doubt a lot of these people wanting to target the under-25s are a part of the problem. They want the high house prices but are too short-sighted to see that with a housing market operating more efficiently and priced more fairly the issue would be reduced, and their own hard-working children could enjoy the reward of their own home.

 

The defence of these latest ad-hoc policy proposals is just as haphazard as the policies themselves.

[Anna B 1,417]

The headline from Cameron seemed to suggest it was most under-25s. IDS adopted a more measured tone and acknowledged the various categories of under-25s who are not abusing the system but still require help. It's a balance of helping the genuinely needy and deserving but identifying abusers of the system and discouraging further abuse.

 

The thing is if you have say a 23 year-old single mum of two who wants to work but can't find work, and has been in her home for years then what happens to her? She might appear to push all the buttons for being an object of hatred but really it might be the right thing to continue to support her. Would plunging the kids into dire poverty and worse housing conditions, maybe into homelessness, help anyone? It might make people with similar views to yours happy but in that domesday scenario for that family I fail to see where the genuine long-term savings would come from.

 

Making people into objects of hatred and easy targets for punishment is not the right way to solve our problems.

 

I do hope that there will be something in place to allow individual judgement to be used if this piece of legislation is passed.

 

One of the problems these days seems to be that everyone has to work to a strict set of rules set in stone that treat the innocent and guilty alike and people are not allowed to use their discretion to make judgements. This means that every eventuality has to be covered by evermore complex rules and legislation.

 

I can see that this might lead to problems as well, but what do other people think?

[Agrajag 10]

I do hope that there will be something in place to allow individual judgement to be used if this piece of legislation is passed.

 

One of the problems these days seems to be that everyone has to work to a strict set of rules set in stone that treat the innocent and guilty alike and people are not allowed to use their discretion to make judgements. This means that every eventuality has to be covered by evermore complex rules and legislation.

 

I can see that this might lead to problems as well, but what do other people think?

 

When deciding who is eligable for disability benefits, you would think that since every disabled/sick person's circumstances are very different, they would use their discretion there, but they don't.

 

It's far easier and cheaper to divide people up into certain groups depending on which boxes they tick on a form.

 

The same will no doubt happen here.

[MrSmith 10]

I remember the last time I was out of work, I was constantly hassled by the Job Centre to show exactly what I was doing to find work, under the threat of having my benefits stopped.

 

Maybe keeping track of so many job seekers is more difficult since many of the people who used to do that are now looking for jobs themselves.

 

Personally, I see this speech by Cameron as way of distracting attention from the tax evaders (or avoiders), who are far worse in my opinion than the so-called spongers. At least social security benefits get pumped straight back into the British economy and not into some off-shore bank account.

 

So in your opinion an individual that employs people and contributes to society is are worse for the country than someone that sits on their arse and sponges off the state. (A parasite)

[MrSmith 10]

There is no joined up thinking in these proposals,he talks about time limits on JSA but the fact is there are precious few jobs to go round,but at the same time he lets in a quarter of a million immigrants every year who will readily work for peanuts and deprive the British people of jobs,if your going to time limit JSA stop letting in millions of immigrants and then maybe there will be enough jobs to go round.

 

That kind of contradicts your statement that there are no jobs.