Lowered Benefit cap could affect landlords from 8th May?

Hi AA Properties

You are right it is fraud in my opinion some would say theft. They are only allowed to claim the money to pay the landlord for the property. Then they keep it.
When you go to the housing they inform you that you have to wait eight weeks before they will pay you direct. By then the relationship between you and the tenant has been really effected. As they rent the property the housing will tell you it is the claimants money not the landlords. But when there has been a overpayment or fraud suddenly it is the landlord who they claim this money from not the tenant. Again how can this be fair unless the Landlord is apart of the fraud. Seems to me they want to have the cake and eat it.

The other point you made work to pay the rent nearly all the new jobs are either zero hours contract or part time with few hours the tenant still claims benefits so it is a joke that these people work long hard hours. Having watch the programme on sports direct imagine working in those conditions.

After working from the age 17 to 43 full time running 3 businesses with 27 staff full and part time (imagine the amount of tax I paid over those years) And I lost my job the government said I was entitled to £65.00 per week for 6 months and Not a penny more. I would have to sell the property I had use my saving and divorce my wife. Then go back for help. The humiliation of going to sign on I could not take at 4.5 months I stopped. The best part was if I did all they suggested but spent the money recklessly they would not help me any further.

It is not easy for people who need benefits. How some people manage to exploit it amazes me. Knowing what they put me through. There is a huge amount of people who struggle to manage on benefits.

Reply to the comment left by "AA Properties Wales " at "29/04/2015 - 07:57":

AA Properties you are right that there should not be something for nothing and those on benefits should do some manual work while looking for a permanent job, this could be charitable or contributing to their community.

The benefit cap and low LHA rates is already forcing people out of London and other expensive areas, and this is affecting smaller households as well as those with 6 kids etc. Even in other areas, like Nottingham where Mick operates his business, the benefit cap is seriously affecting larger households.

It's all very well saying that the benefit cap is a good thing because taxpayers should not have to pay for expensive houses, but if large families cannot live together as a single household then they have to split up into multiple households, so even more housing is needed and even more taxpayers money has to pay for it (wherever it may be in the country).

There are of course ways for households to avoid being affected by the benefit cap, but nobody tells them this, so they end up building up rent arrears and being evicted, this is at huge cost to the landlord, but then the local councils have to deal with the homelessness, at a far far higher cost than it would have been to simply pay the HB for their previous home. I agree that the government needs to save money, but these welfare benefit cuts actually end up costing the taxpayers much more in the long run. It is false economy!

Agree with you.

Hi AA,

Yes saw your posts before, your tenants seem similar to mine.

I too think all tenants should be made to work for the money, but as u know, in reality, they don’t.

So I say to the other guys that don’t seem to understand the HB market, where is plan B if the tenants won't go to work?

I’d love all my tenants to work, pay rent 1st of every month, I’d be on a beach in Spain every month, but truth is, they don’t.

Where is plan B for shelter & food if the majority of MY HB tenants are too lazy to work?
I have loads of good HB tenants, but they will freely admit ‘Work? What’s that?’

And yes Neil, shows what the Govt knows, with paying tenant direct, I’ve wrote on that lots of times.

And yes Rob, I have a few families myself where Mum has had to ‘off-load’ a few kids to mates & neighbours, which has NOW COST THE GOVT MORE.

With Labour, Landlords will be a lot worst off!

in the USA they get vouchers for basic food not money, this will not buy fags or booze or mcdonalds, all that is needed is some money management, but why they are not made to do some community work, and why they need to live in high housing cost areas when no tie to work I do not know, these areas are often out of the reach of the very people funding the benefits, hardly fair is it.

If you're exempt from the Benefit Cap, this means your benefit won't be capped, even if your benefit income is above the limit of the cap.

You might be exempt from the cap if:
•you qualify for Working Tax Credit
•you're above the qualifying age for Pension Credit
•you get certain benefits for sickness or disability or a war pension
•you or your partner had been in employment for at least 50 weeks out of the 52 weeks before your last day of work.

Reply to the comment left by "Mick Roberts" at "30/04/2015 - 07:29":

We have a tenant who has off-loaded kids to her own mother.

She figured out that as a single person under 35, she was only entitled to £51.50/week. By having her first child, that shot up to £92. She has then had a baby a year since, with each one bringing more HB.

Now there is nothing more to be gained by having more so she has sent three to live (possibly even been formally adopted by) her own mother, who was a single person (over 35) on HB at around £75/week. She too is now up to around £120.

Moral, have six kids, give half to your mother, both claim £120/week!

(All the kids actually live with their biological mother, it's just 'officially' some live with grandma)

let's hope that with the new government this sort this abuse, and lots of others, will be stopped, also I am hoping (I know others will disagree) that the cap is lowered quickly and considerably, at the moment the cap equates to an earned amount of almost 30k, a figure which most workers in this country can only dream about. So we have a situation where millions of hard working people leave early in the morning, slog their guts out, returning home late, and take home less than some lazy person who sits watching sky all day with fag in hand, all thanks to taxpayers money. Well politics apart I think that not only is this injust it is an insult to all the hardworkers in this country. So the answer is reduce the cap considerably, if that means the HB does not cover the rent then they will have to do what all the rest of us do, live where we can afford, if this means moving out of London then so be it, no work ties in my book means no ties to London, with the inevitable high rent. If this upsets some of them then I for one will cheer.