As a rule, a household tends to live according to their means, or at least their perception of the resources at their disposal, whether in the social housing sector, private sector, or a home-owner.
If, after being given a three bedroom property, a family decide to fill it with 10 children (and we have seen examples of this in various documentaries recently), so be it. Many families choose to have only one or two children and will consider that they have sufficiently ‘filled’ their three bedroom property.
Unfortunately, due to the message given out by the media, the general public are under the misconception that those renting in the social housing sector have an abundance of spare bedrooms. When I point out to my three bedroom, home-owning friends that if they rented in the social housing sector they and their two same-sex children would be deemed to be under-occupying, the penny drops and the level of UK Government interference in family life is appreciated.
The administrative aspect of what the UK Government are calling ‘under-occupancy’ must now be a logistical administrative nightmare. With concessions being made for children with disabilities, parents with children in the Armed Forces, foster carers and older people, the scale of the administrative task is now surely eroding away any savings which the UK Government maintains might have been made from this reform.
Supporting politicians point to an inequality in the previous system and compare housing benefit under-occupancy regulations with Local Housing Allowance regulations. But the reality is, as many private renters will tell you, they receive an allowance which they can use towards any property they can access. Many private renters can and do find properties larger than their ‘need’ but are still able to cover it with LHA and are therefore able to live according to the means at their disposal. Conversely, in the social sector tenants are subject to a deduction for spare bedrooms, irrespective of where they live.
Now where’s the equality in that?
Clare James
Housing Services Policy Officer
I totally agree, what a waste of time and money!
ReplyDeleteI can understand the basic principle of having just enough rooms for your family if the you are receiving housing benefit that seems only fair but expecting people to move is ridiculous. If this concept was filtered in as families move properties, children leave home and circumstances change that would be understandable but the government in some areas have been too generous in the past, let financial support for those in need be abused by those not in need and are now trying to put it right over night.
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