[Ben Reeve
Lewis exposes a housing benefit scandal …]
Last Saturday night Frazzles and I went to what seemed to be the only free firework display in South East London at Blackheath to meet up with friends. But it seemed like everyone in South East London had come up with the same idea.
Just 25 minutes of banging and flashing (I mean the display, although it could also describe my love life) [I assume thats a joke – Ed] and then an hour and a half just to get back to the car. There were less people trying to get off the beach at Dunkirk in 1940.
We couldn’t even meet our friends because they were on the other side of the heath and as the explosions built up we shouted “ooooohhhh” and “Aaaaaaagh” at each other over our mobile phones. A night out with friends 2012 style.
Beautiful houses on Blackheath though. I once did the electoral register there and knocked on the door of the Prokofiev family. It was opened by an 18 year old posh girl who signed the form with her nose in the air. I asked if there was any connection between her family and the famous composer, she haughtily replied, with a toss of her ponytail “He’s my Granddaddy”, to which I jovially responded “What an amazing coincidence” She looked at me puzzled….”My name is Mozart”. She shut the door in my face.
And to business.
About those high earning benefit scroungers …
Do you remember about a year ago government making big noises about the notion of people getting more than £100,000 in housing related benefits a year living in social housing? They trumpeted the unfairness of this and vowed to deal with the problem, to show they were really on the side of the people and would make these ne’er do wells pay.
Even as late as October 31st this year Lord Freud said:
“Sadly this is the system we have inherited. A system that allowed some families who were living in areas with incredibly high rents, to claim over £100,000 a year in housing costs.”
Well, I read this week about an organisation called “Full Facts”, an independent body who looks closely at data produced by governments and large organisations . They lodged an FOI request with the DWP to find out exactly how many of these dreadful scrounging scum were out there, sucking the lifeblood out of the economy and plunging us all further into debt and misery.
The result? 5. Five families in the whole country.
The same FOI request revealed that four fifths of people on housing benefits receive less than £100 a week and only 70 people out of 4.5 million receive more than £1,000 a week.
All of which handily makes a nonsense of all these people on housing benefit draining the country’s coffers, that government are laying the blame on don’t you think?
MPs in B&Bs?
Of course you can still get public help if you earn more than £100,000 a year. 24 Dash ran a story that doesn’t do Westminster Council any favours. Their arms length management organisation (ALMO) City West Homes is offering £150 reward from public funds to find a local rental property for an unnamed MP.
The advert for the reward ran:-
“We have a MP (Member of Parliament) looking for a flat with us. The flat must be under £335 per week, have central heating and be within 20 minutes walk of the Houses of Parliament”
This is the same Westminster council who were exposed last week for having astronomical amounts of families lounging in bed and breakfast accommodation. Maybe that is what is behind the story, the MP in question could be homeless and stuck in a run down B&B, that might explain why he needed the help. Of course….it all seems so obvious now, silly me.
Estate agent shocker
Perhaps the least shocking piece of information this week was covered on Planet Property, the news that the vast majority of the public don’t trust estate agents . Well fan my brow as Scarlet O’Hara once may have said.
According to the report published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, 90% of homebuyers want compulsory regulation for estate agents. I thought this was already the case, it’s letting agents who don’t have to be regulated.
There is a bit of a contradiction in the report’s findings as well. Despite 90% of people saying they think estate agents need to be regulated, 54% didn’t bother to check if the agent they last used was accredited or not, so do they really care?
Living in the office
Also on Planet Property I read of the rise in disused office accommodation being converted into homes. Martin Davis of DTZ UK Research said:-
“We expect the divergence in office and residential values to continue over the next five years.”
I remember back in the 1990s churches were being converted. I actually looked at one in a village in Somerset. Beautiful light airy rooms full of features and character but the graveyard was still around it and the purchaser couldn’t change it. Needless to say it was on the market a long time, even though it was cheap. I imagine it was bought by a couple of Goths.
Then in the noughties it was pubs that were getting the conversions while chain brewers converted factories and warehouses into pubs. So what’s with all these offices then?
Apparently in London planning permission has been given to convert 2,197 units, a figure that far outstrips previous planning applications. But I don’t know many offices that I would call desirable.
The office I work in is grade II listed, a prime example of a school of architecture known as Brutalism. Imagine the most ugly concrete nightmare you could possibly conjure up and that’s Brutalism. I can’t see anyone wanting to live in it.
That’s it in the foreground of the picture, “The bunker” as it is known locally, home to the homeless unit. Fancy living in it?
Eviction shocker
Finally I read on 24 Dash that the ‘Prince of Peace’ has been evicted from his home in Sheffield.
It started with a suspended possession order for playing keyboards late at night and rapping over the tunes then graduated to parking his car in the back garden and growing cannabis.
What’s the world coming to when you cant trust the son of God to behave in a tenant-like manner?
[NB – we’re all sons and daughters of God – Ed]
Ben Reeve Lewis
Don’t forget the IDS obfuscation/lies about families where ‘three generations have never worked.’
Ben,
It does not matter to me if it is 1 family or 70, it is unfair to the taxpayer. 70 families getting north of £5 million pounds in housing benefit requires all the income tax of about 1,500 people on the average wage. I know capping benefits wont solve all the coutries debt problems but its a start.
The family next door to me (mum dad and 4 children) only get £14,000 in HB but the government benefits advisor indicates total benefits of nearer £30,000, tax free. The father has never worked and probably never will, as he says “Id only be a few quid a week better of working so I would rather be home to see more of the kids”. I dont know if the benefit cap will change his mind but even if it doesnt at least the taxpayer will be £4,000 better off.
I often wonder if I had known all this when I was 18 wether I would have bothered going to work.
Dave
Well Dave I understand your ire well enough and sympathise with it to an extent. I spend my working week saving people’s homes from repossession and wouldnt be able to save my own if it wasnt for all the extra work I do training and writing which sees my day start at 6am and finish at 10pm and that schedule run through my weekends too as I strive to keep a roof over my head against rapacious, out of control rents.
Despite my understanding of your views what I dont do is fall into the easy trap being laid by our government that people on benefits are to blame for raping the economy and making me work the hours that I do.
Government criticise Wonga and their 4,000% interest rates profiteering off of people with nowhere else to turn whilst letting one of Cameron’s advisers take a job heading up a government lobbying team to ensure that government and Wonga are on the same page.
Personally I can live with those 5 or even 70 families coining it in. To my mind it pales into insignificance when held up against the duplicity and cynicism of what government are doing.
Ben,
Dont get me wrong I am no fan of this government but if you want to know who is responsible for ludicrous house prices and hence rents it is Blair and Brown, they allowed things to get out of control. They presided over unregulated BTL, 125%, cheap, unverified mortgages, high population growth and a shortage of new house building to fuel a ponzi scheme that was never sustainable. Granted I dont remember the Tories or Libdems saying anything against it at the time. I knew in 2004 when a friend of mine who earned about £10k got a £220k Northern Rock mortgage that it would end in tears, what surprised me was that it took another 3-4 years for the bubble to finally burst.
I dont think “people on benefits are to blame for raping the economy” as I hinted in my last reply I would probably do the same in their position. What is wrong is a system that allows 10% ? of the able bodied working population to live off the backs of the rest of the over taxed over worked people. Yes we are told the jobs are not there, and this may be so, but there are other ways of contributing to society.
I enjoy reading your Friday blog, it gives me a view from another perspective but I would rather hear your views on how the system should be changed for the better rather than defending the staus quo.
Dave
I wouldnt say I defend the status quo Dave, I cant stand Caroline and thought down, down deeper and down was too repetitive haha
I do agree that in this column I often err towards complaints more than solutions. In fact I have been discussing with Tessa ways of evolving Newsround, maybe thats the way I should go, call the column “If I ruled the world” and offer more suggestions for better ways of working.
The trouble is, with the things like the Wonga scandal its difficult not to be angry.
I agree with what you say about Blair and Brown and I would extend that to include Thatcher, whose introduction of the right to buy is still today one of the main drivers of the death of social housing as an ethos but this current crop have been in for long enough now to shoulder a lot of the blame too, and if they dont, well next year’s introduction of universal credit and the misery that will cause across the board will leave them with nowhere else to point the finger. You cant balme Blair, Brown or even Thatcher for that one
I work for an estate property management company http://www.vfmproperty.com which specialises in residential block management for blocks of flats and apartments. During our regular visits to properties throughout the London area I witness many out of work benefits claimants who are at home. The puzzle for me is how on earth can they afford to have Sky tv ? I find the monthly Sky subscription pretty steep – so much so I chose to make do without.
It strikes me that benefits are too generous in many cases if the recipients are able to afford expensive luxuries such as Sky tv.
Yep it happens Ryan and I dont have Sky for the same reasons. Many clients I interview have the latest iPhones as well but also most are surviving on JSA @ around £70 a week. A decent tariff with phone is only about £35 a month which is a damned sight cheaper than running a landline
The most I have seen a client get on benefits was just over £500 a week but she was a single mum with 3 kids, 2 of whom were disabled.
Its dangerous, although tempting and fun, to make assumptions by looking at satellite dishes and imagine what they are living on. I do the same thing when I see people driving a car I would love but often when you talk to them its a company car or they are up to their eyeballs in monthly payments on it.
I’m one of the people who spends his days in interview rooms with many people on benefits and visiting their houses and running experian checks and delving into their finances, trust me, it aint that good
I met you, briefly, at the SE London Housing Partnership meeting on Wednesday. A very good event.
I had come to chat with the likes of St Mungos and St Giles as I am looking at converting my offices into, potentially, 9 Single bed units and thought a leasing scheme may be the way forward.
While I was talking about creating very good, very safe and affordable accomodation for the London Homeless my car , parked in the municipal car park, was broken into and trashed and the very same office keys nicked as well as other items.
I’ve now changed said locks so won’t be bothered with squatters but I’m not sure I want to be bothered with London homeless either !
It will make just as good accomodation for professionals.
Changing my sign off name, temporarily, to
Jaded and Cynical!
Phylis dont you dare. Tessa will give you my number, lets talk. I have plans