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

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

8:55 AM, 19th June 2019, About 6 years ago 63

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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

 


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RichDad

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13:54 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Clare at 20/06/2019 - 10:48Hi Chris, I do believe that the BBC *can* do decent due diligence, *however* the BBC is also quite capable of being embarrassingly selective in what they report and broadcast, with a great tendency for their obvious agenda to have a heavy bias towards the left. At times it can be quite cringeworthy to watch (like this example of the Cornwall couple).

Chris Clare

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14:41 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Richard Peeters at 20/06/2019 - 13:54
Agreed, cringeworthy to say the least and considering it is publicly funded damn annoying.

Dennis Leverett

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15:18 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

ameliahartman states "Social Housing sector IS NOT anti DHSS" but "that in Social Housing if they can't pay the deposit or afford the first months rent they don't get" so what happens then. Yet we discriminate by applying the same affordability tests. What are Shelter and the Government going to do to help the 1000's of "50's" who took out interest only mortgages on their homes without making provision to pay capital back when the mortgage ends or help those that have been allowed to draw down on their pension funds without considering the future decrease in the income provided. Oh, I know!!! we will subsidise them from the huge profits we make I don't think. The latest Berlin rental thingy is something to be scared of here if Mr Corbyn gets in.

ameliahartman

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16:01 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Obfuscated Data

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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16:11 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by ameliahartman at 20/06/2019 - 16:01
Is that the case in all areas?

If it is, then I am massively under charging some of my Tenants in Thetford.

ameliahartman

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16:26 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Obfuscated Data

Old Mrs Landlord

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17:15 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Your final sentence is not factually true Amanda. Such applicants are routinely being turned away by housing associations, as highlighted by an article in the Guardian on 15th May, referenced by me on 20th May on the thread here entitled "Should landlords have the right to refuse DSS tenants?".

Appalled Landlord

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17:41 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Old Mrs Landlord at 20/06/2019 - 17:15
The article started with:

“The revelation in the Crisis annual homelessness monitor that housing associations are routinely excluding the poorest tenants – including homeless people – will shock anyone who believes that the cheapest form of housing should be accessible to the least well-off.

Anecdotally, the practice of excluding risky prospective tenants because they have failed to pass financial capability assessments has been known for some time: the monitor fleshes out the widespread concern that councils now have that the policy is actively undermining their attempts to house homeless people.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/15/exclusion-poor-tenants-fatal-flaw-housing-policy

Jonathan Clarke

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18:19 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by ameliahartman at 20/06/2019 - 16:01
There is a massive variation countrywide between LHA rates and private rents so its totally impossible to generalise and have any meaningful average . Then scaling down in each BRMA there are great variations between different estates. So on some estates LHA almost match and on some they are out by maybe £200 pcm . Then there is a further subdivison to be made with the various rates for 1/2/3/4 beds . So a 4 bed in one estate LHA exceeds market rates by maybe £150 but on say a 3 bed in another area the LHA rate may be £150 below market value.

Everyone I suggest should look at the detail on their own patch and not pay attention to generalisations on here

Dennis Leverett

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20:54 PM, 20th June 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by ameliahartman at 20/06/2019 - 16:26
Then why did you quote the following "When people DO get offered social housing, (basically when they have been in temporary or emergency accommodation for a while and got to the top of the housing list), if they are unable to pay the deposit and first month’s rent, they are turned away."

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