Well as a landlord myself I feel I should stick up for us a little bit. I 'became' a landlord some years back when my circumstances changed and I couldn't actually afford to live there myself so I rented from a friend in a different area and let out my 2-bed flat in Belvedere.
We're not all greedy and trying to suck money out of the state. Indeed, I don't take on housing benefit tenants because I have a moral objection to people who've not worked for the place that I worked hard to buy getting it for free. Almost all of the people that I have rented to over the years were earning more money than I was/am earning. Trust me - all the laws are bent well and truly in favour of tenants. One of my tenants span me a yarn about not being able to pay his rent because of his sick father. I gave him a bit of leeway and he abused it - he reneged on his promise to eventually pay the rent and when he left he literally stole an entire window frame which cost me £350 to replace! When I took him to court for the rent money (£2.5K) the court bent over backwards to help him (accepting his plea that he 'didn't actually know his own address') and despite them finding in my favour I've not been able to get a penny back from him because he wouldn't tell the court where he now lives! Throughout the entire time he was there I was still paying a mortgage.
Thanks to the last government I even have to shell out for an 'energy efficiency certificate' so that tenants can tell that a coal fire is less energy efficient than a radiator. I could go on..... but suffice to say that most landlords are just regular hard-working people who are trying to maintain an investment for their own future instead of relying on the state.
24 Red, the conclusion is that the current system as it is provides no incentive to look after your affairs and not rely on the state to bail you out. And if that's the case than the benefits trap is never going to be eradicated, which is what any reform should be looking to achieve.
The gradual introduction of a workfare system to things like JSA is in my opinion a good thing, because I don't think it's right that someone can go through life living off handouts from the state. If introducing such a system to all benefits means that people like him are "left to drink and sleep in the nearest park" as you put it, then so be it, though obviously you'd hope in the future that people such as him are informed that that is what will happen if they continue abusing the system.
Anyway getting back to the issue of Housing Benefit, if someone not in receipt of Housing Benefit is paying the proposed cap for their rent (so £20,700 pa), then they are realistically going to have to be earning in excess of £30,000 a year once tax has been taken out of it. If the millions of people who actually work doing jobs like nursing, policing etc. can't afford to live in an area, I don't see why someone who does diddly squat should be able to either......
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We're not all greedy and trying to suck money out of the state. Indeed, I don't take on housing benefit tenants because I have a moral objection to people who've not worked for the place that I worked hard to buy getting it for free. Almost all of the people that I have rented to over the years were earning more money than I was/am earning. Trust me - all the laws are bent well and truly in favour of tenants. One of my tenants span me a yarn about not being able to pay his rent because of his sick father. I gave him a bit of leeway and he abused it - he reneged on his promise to eventually pay the rent and when he left he literally stole an entire window frame which cost me £350 to replace! When I took him to court for the rent money (£2.5K) the court bent over backwards to help him (accepting his plea that he 'didn't actually know his own address') and despite them finding in my favour I've not been able to get a penny back from him because he wouldn't tell the court where he now lives! Throughout the entire time he was there I was still paying a mortgage.
Thanks to the last government I even have to shell out for an 'energy efficiency certificate' so that tenants can tell that a coal fire is less energy efficient than a radiator. I could go on..... but suffice to say that most landlords are just regular hard-working people who are trying to maintain an investment for their own future instead of relying on the state.
The gradual introduction of a workfare system to things like JSA is in my opinion a good thing, because I don't think it's right that someone can go through life living off handouts from the state. If introducing such a system to all benefits means that people like him are "left to drink and sleep in the nearest park" as you put it, then so be it, though obviously you'd hope in the future that people such as him are informed that that is what will happen if they continue abusing the system.
Anyway getting back to the issue of Housing Benefit, if someone not in receipt of Housing Benefit is paying the proposed cap for their rent (so £20,700 pa), then they are realistically going to have to be earning in excess of £30,000 a year once tax has been taken out of it. If the millions of people who actually work doing jobs like nursing, policing etc. can't afford to live in an area, I don't see why someone who does diddly squat should be able to either......