Lowered Benefit cap could affect landlords from 8th May?

the genuinely disabled or ill should and do get lots of help, but where we need to diferentiate is between them and the lazy, there should be NO able bodied in this country not contributing in one way or another, give them a month to get a job or find them one, plenty of areas need cleaning up, no-one should get money for nothing.

Perhaps this is where we differ, Robert.

I have over 100 houses of my own and another 350-500 I manage in Grimsby...one of the UK's poorest areas. I deal with the people that live here daily. All I see is three or four generations of idle excuses for humans. Those that pissed around in school, took no-one's advice and now expect hand-outs, because their role model parents and grandparents did the same. No matter how poor or destitute I become, I will not lose the drive to work up/back up. The people I come into contact with have given up, long ago. That is a choice. They have even received assistance and abused it. Time and time again. Enough is enough (even if that means some genuinely in need have to suffer in order to re-build a better society).

You're not the only one at the coalface.

I watch every December tenants blowing all their benefits on Xmas presents I wouldn't buy myself. They spend their money on crap -designer clothes and trainers they can ill afford.

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "14/05/2015 - 10:08":

I agree it is the system that is failing, and I understand how angry people are when they see the "lazy/idle/feckless" sat on their backsides watching Jeremy Kyle all day while others are out at work earning a living. But these "lazy/idle/feckless" people really are a small minority of benefit claimants (but they are portrayed as the majority), and it is this distortion that is so dangerous. I agree something needs to be done to get them to try harder (rather than remain lazy/feckless/idle etc), I just don't believe that a blanket approach such as a lowering of the benefit cap is the answer, as it will harm all those hard working people as well.

Reply to the comment left by "Alan Loughlin" at "14/05/2015 - 10:29":

If we're handing the money out anyway, we may as well get something in return for our trouble.

I think we could do with a national road-building school. A workforce that are all trained to the highest standard that are mandatorily called in after a gas company/water board etc. have finished digging to make the road good. Not the quick last minute 'I-want-to-get-home-because-it's-Friday-night' rush-job you see left by those who are qualified to mend pipes, not lay tarmac. Done properly it will prevent the reoccurrence of potholes following these types of works.

Reply to the comment left by "Robert Mellors" at "14/05/2015 - 10:38":

Once again, perhaps it's the area in which I live -virtually 20% of the town's population are claiming HB where I am from (when you factor in/strip out the kids and the claimant's partner etc, it'll no doubt be more). This, whether a majority or not, is too high a level to sustain. It. Has. To. Be. Stopped. Or at very least, seriously curbed.

ditto Luke P

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "14/05/2015 - 10:47":

Grimsby has suffered from the losses to the fishing industry so there is a higher level of unemployment when so much of the town was based on one industry. I live in Worksop in North Notts, and it was a town reliant on the coal industry (and to a lesser extent on the steel industry of Sheffield), but both of these industries have gone so the level of unemployment was very high. (More of Maggie's legacy). It takes a long time for such areas to recover and for new jobs to be created, but it is happening. When an industry disappears then the incomes of the residents drop, and also their spending power (so shops etc are also badly affected), and some people who have alternative work skills leave the area so the housing demand drops and landlords are left with the people who have the least skills and are the most dependent on benefits. The benefit cap reductions will force more unskilled people to precisely these types of areas, where the housing is cheaper, and as a result you will see an increase in the unemployed (perhaps unemployable) population, so on a local level you will see a further distortion as Grimsby and other areas becomes a poor ghetto, while London is cleared of poor people. It's not quite the same as ethnic cleansing, but there are certainly many similarities!

I also see people spend their Xmas money on crap designer clothes and stuff they can ill-afford, rather than using it to pay rent arrears or for other important purposes, and I think how stupid this is/they are, but I'm sure we have all spent money unwisely at some point in our lives. Again, perhaps the food/clothing vouchers instead of cash option would help to address this issue, while still giving people the safety net of being able to feed and clothe their families. - Perhaps with the option to "top up" if they also mend the roads (or do other community services)? However, this should be separate to the issue of Housing Benefit to pay the rent, because whatever the person's situation and whatever community work they do, they still need a place to live and if the State won't or can't provide this, then private landlords have to do so, and it needs to be paid for through some system.

Reply to the comment left by "Robert Mellors" at "14/05/2015 - 11:21":

As long as the whole rent amount was taken from their total benefit. Not just the HB element.

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "14/05/2015 - 10:38":

Luke that's a coincidence i am managing a project for a Housebuilder and were about to put in the roads, please send a squad this way they can practice all they want ! When we began this job a month ago (in Scotland) the first port of call was the job centre wanted a ground worker, no response uninterested and no follow up, then the library not allowed to advertise jobs, gumtree no replies etc etc what does that tell us about society. I know in London if I went to the diy store id get ten apicants for the same job, they wait around there. Could it be a Scottish thing, I mean lots of handouts cash, cars and drugs are freely available up here or say I wanted to hire in Nottingham or Grinsby would I meet the same level of apathy and uninterest from those able to work and the government employees to enable work. Or is it hard work that is the problem, are we a nation of pen pushers a service industry with no backbone left.

Reply to the comment left by "Simon " at "14/05/2015 - 11:41":

You'd maybe get a few applicants that we're forced/coerced/persuaded to apply, but none that would really want to do the job (nor have the basic skills to even function properly as an employed worker). If they did make a start, they'd no doubt find it too hard work and quit after half a day. There wouldn't be enough money in it to make it worth their while. I know some of my tenants that are scamming as much as they can get away with (including disability) and would need around £40-50k a year to get by just as they are now. So once you take away tax, N.I, the fact you now have to pay full council tax, no more free prescriptions, fuel/bus/train to work etc. etc. they'd be in a similar position. The problem is, these folk are only barely suitable for minimum wage menial jobs.