benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

I watched BBC 1 last night about the benefits cap and the problems it has caused families . £20,000 for outer London and £23,000 for inner London are the max benefit paid . The families used to get their housing benefit paid on top but it's now only 50 pence a week towards the rent .

The single parents were struggling to live and also get work as the children were small , the hours offered would cause problems for the children at school etc . One chap was offered 25 hrs a week in a bank but couldn't take it as he had no help in collecting the children from school so was stuck on benefits . Another family had 4 children mum and dad didn't work , father had a bad hand and said he was looking for work . They were deeply in debt to their landlord and could be evicted . A mother had her children in care (4) as due to the rent not being paid she was evicted , she was struggling to get them back and keep the payments up

A grandmother was caring for her 4 grandsons permanently she did have an income of benefits of almost £50,000 , £27,000 was a payment for the 4 children and the other payment was social benefits , yet she was in debt with her rent , she said the money was for the children and would not use it to pay the debt off the rent .

Do you think £20,000 not including rent is enough for a family to live on , it would be interesting to hear your thoughts . I was wondering how many working families do bring home that amount each year and live on it and pay rent .

Do you think the benefits cap is wrong

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

No but big but coming no one working on nmw would get that much. If you give families more than nmw what reason would there be to work ? Or how would they manage if they found a job !

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

Its a wicked circle created by the governments giving out benefits willy nilly to any bugger that wanted them. Now we are seeing the downside and I believe its down to the parents to get themselves out of the mess they are in.
There is plenty of work out there it might not be all cushy numbers but its better than sitting at home all day playing video games and becoming obese like so many are today and using their money buying booze or drugs.
The younger generations have been spoilt and given everything they want and now they are gonna have to get off their backsides and go out and get work.
We never had all these tax benefits in my day we were always looking at saving pennys where ever we could and going without so our kids could have school clothing and always be fed well.
I think its a good thing benefit caps lets get this country back on its feet again. Just like the DLA/PPI there are to many scroungers taking the p1ss.
The only downside I see on the DLA/PPI system is that our stupid governments were paying French owned company and now a US company 100's of millions of pounds to sort it out when it should have been given a home based company.

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

The big problem with benefit cap was it made peop,e think everyone was getting so much money when in reality most claimants get much much less.

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

I felt for the chap who couldn't take the bank job of 25 hrs , he would have been able to earn another £200 a week on top of his benefits , he wanted the job , but the children would have struggled alone more . He was stuck in the benefits trap . There are people who want to work but what are they supposed to do , especially the single parents .

Edited to add

I really felt for the children , they talked about being evicted from their home very soon . You could see the concern on their faces

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

I agree I'm not in a position to judge anyone in that situation I don't think I could leave kids just to work. Kids need a parent at home IMO we've done without over the years to ensure one of us is at home but on my own I couldn't have done that.

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

There was also a married man with children who spent £40 a week on cigarettes and beer who said he didn't see why he couldn't spend the benefit money as he wished yet his children were told there wouldn't be getting much for Christmas. He supposedly had a hand injury which prevented him from working but didn't prevent him using a games console which he said was exercise for his hand.

There was a woman with a foul tongue and 7 children most in foster care, where were the fathers and why weren't they helping to support their children. A course of lessons in family planning would be helpful to that young woman. If you can't support children them don't have them . I think they said she had not worked for 17 years and was in her thirty's.

There seemed to be an attitude prevalent among most of those in the programme that benefits were 'a right' everyone who works and pays taxes including the low paid contribute to that lifestyle .

We need to help the disabled and those too ill to work but we should not be funding the easy lifestyles of those who can work but choose not to.
The cut in housing benefits is supposed to be awake up call for some to go out and get a job.

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt

Hi

Housing Benefit is only automatically paid to the landlord if the house is a Council House.

There are not many Council Houses left, most tenants are with a Housing Association or a Private Landlord and in these cases the rent is paid to the Tenants, a considerable number of whom do not pay the landlord.

This raises rents, as Landlords factor in a % of bad debts and when evicted, the tenants are put in Temporary Accommodation until their case has been reviewed.

We could save hundreds of millions by paying all rent direct to the landlord.

One of the stupidities of the system is the one size fits all system we have.

One of the cases shown was a grandmother looking after 4 kids, this saves us a fortune, if they went into care the cost would be in excess of £100k a year to the taxpayer.

Re: benefits cap for families causing problems of debt