Shelter couple’s “punishment”: self-imposed exile in Cornwall

Shelter has produced a video, which you can view below, as part of its futile campaign against No DSS adverts.

Comments can be left below the video if you Click here

“Krystyna and her husband Geoff had to return to private renting in their 50s after being home owners when they were made redundant. When they tried to find somewhere to rent they faced DSS discrimination and struggled to find a place to live. They were forced to move from the West Midlands to Cornwall just to find a home.”

Krystyna describes this as a punishment – which is self-pitying nonsense. If these are real people – and not actors – it shows that a strong sense of entitlement is not confined to the young.

They are of working age, but do not work, so they earn no income. They feel it is beneath their dignity to ask someone to be a guarantor, even if they could find one. Nonetheless they feel entitled to the right to apply for properties in the private rented sector whose landlords would not accept them because they would have to bear the loss if the housing benefit/universal credit was not passed on, or was stopped or was clawed back later.

Why should a private landlord take these risks? The PRS is not part of the Welfare State.

The No DSS campaign page that Shelter links to, click here, is aimed at the PRS. There is no mention of housing associations which apply the same risk-avoidance policy to applicants on benefits. Krystyna and Geoff do not say whether social housing providers turned them down. Maybe social housing is also beneath their dignity.

Joe Speye is a commentator on social housing. He is no friend of the PRS, but he wrote:

“The position from the National Housing Federation that NO DSS is exclusively a private rented sector matter and is not operable by social rented sector landlords is deliberate and known lie and hypocrisy. That same charge can be applied to Shelter who also know full well that social (sic) landlords operate NO DSS policies as a matter of course. The use of this knowingly false and wafer-thin superficial premise that only private landlords operate the emotive term of NO DSS renders Shelter’s charge that the practice is discrimination to be worthless and a campaign unworthy of a junior school debating society. It also is one of many incompetent campaigns and articles and outpourings from Shelter that is errant, lazy and frankly fake news.” (Emphasis added) Click here

One outpouring was so misleading that it was withdrawn from Shelter’s website after one day, following David Smith’s demolition of Polly Neate’s claims on the RLA’s website, and on Radio 4. Well done David! Click here

Share This Article