> is where do people live in Europe if they have no personal funds to buy or rent housing? Do they live in housing operated by some unit of government, or where?
The English benefit system is complex. Here's an attempt to describe some of it.
We pay a national insurance. Some of our benefits are based on contributions you make. Other benefits are income related (means-tested.)
If you have a mortgage and lose your job you get the interest on the mortgage paid, but not the capital.
If you're renting there's something called the Local Housing Allowance - that's a list of property types (one room; one bed; two bed; etc) and maximum prices for those properties. You get all your rent if you're under the limit, but you have to pay anything over the limit yourself. Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that. You cannot be "over accommodated" (more on this later, with the 'bedroom tax'). You cannot have savings over a certain amount (£16,000?). It has to be a real rental situation; renting off family becomes tricky. There are rules about living with people as if you're married, etc.
Housing benefit is paid by the local council, using money they get from central government. It's a horrifically inefficient system, and has a lot of fraud.
Then there's "social housing". This is provided by companies providing it, or by local councils. Council houses tend to be high quality buildings in not-good areas. Rents are very cheap. There are very long waiting lists. Recently there's something people are calling the bedroom tax - if you're in a house that has extra bedrooms the rent for those rooms is not paid. This has always been the case with private renting. There's a bunch of reasons why this is horrible, and those exceptions should be baked into the new law.
Some people need emergency accommodation. Local authorities should provide bread and breakfast accommodation, or hostel accommodation. There are pretty strict rules about what counts as "homeless". And if you're found to be 'intentionally homeless' it's going to be very hard to get help.
Apologies for the garbled text. It is a complex, large, bit of law with many overlapping bits of legislation.
Thanks, that's the clearest explanation I've seen of our system. And what a mess it is!
I am personally in favour of the bedroom tax, so it'd be good to hear why this is horrible (I'm sure there are edge cases I've not thought of).
Completely agree about housing benefit being a horrifically inefficient system. I was talking to a person who deals with people on housing benefit yesterday, about the number who lie about not cohabiting (so they get higher payments for being 'single'). Not sure any way round that.
You're right, it's just a few edge cases that make the bedroom tax horrible.
The theory is that people are over accommodated, and should move to more appropriate housing. But moving home is expensive, and these people by definition don't have much money.
I haven't seen evidence that moving these people around will make any difference to the housing shortage.
But yes, it's a good idea.
Housing benefits for cohabiting / single people is weird. Ann and Bob live in separate flats and get full benefits each. They move into a flat together, and as a couple they get less than either of them was getting singly. That system is wrong, I think.
The English benefit system is complex. Here's an attempt to describe some of it.
We pay a national insurance. Some of our benefits are based on contributions you make. Other benefits are income related (means-tested.)
If you have a mortgage and lose your job you get the interest on the mortgage paid, but not the capital.
If you're renting there's something called the Local Housing Allowance - that's a list of property types (one room; one bed; two bed; etc) and maximum prices for those properties. You get all your rent if you're under the limit, but you have to pay anything over the limit yourself. Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that. You cannot be "over accommodated" (more on this later, with the 'bedroom tax'). You cannot have savings over a certain amount (£16,000?). It has to be a real rental situation; renting off family becomes tricky. There are rules about living with people as if you're married, etc.
Housing benefit is paid by the local council, using money they get from central government. It's a horrifically inefficient system, and has a lot of fraud.
Then there's "social housing". This is provided by companies providing it, or by local councils. Council houses tend to be high quality buildings in not-good areas. Rents are very cheap. There are very long waiting lists. Recently there's something people are calling the bedroom tax - if you're in a house that has extra bedrooms the rent for those rooms is not paid. This has always been the case with private renting. There's a bunch of reasons why this is horrible, and those exceptions should be baked into the new law.
Some people need emergency accommodation. Local authorities should provide bread and breakfast accommodation, or hostel accommodation. There are pretty strict rules about what counts as "homeless". And if you're found to be 'intentionally homeless' it's going to be very hard to get help.
Apologies for the garbled text. It is a complex, large, bit of law with many overlapping bits of legislation.