The problem is that it is based on the median rather than the average rents for an area.
Even despite government pledges to build low cost housing, developers and buy-to-let landlords are very adept at minimising the provision of this low cost housing, as greater profits can be made elsewhere.
What this means is that in a great deal of areas, there is not an even range of rental properties available in all price bands. You only need one property at each extreme to create the price range from which to draw the median.
This means that often there is a completely uneven spread, and the great bulk of properties in an area often fall between the fiftieth and seventieth percentile, making it nigh on impossible to find a home affordable on the adjusted housing benefit.
While I am in favour of, or at least resigned to, a number of the measures in this budget, this one is unneccessarily harsh.
I thought that housing benefit was a contribution towards rent, not necessarily the full rent, while you are looking for new work. There should be an incentive to find work and not live on benefits. It's definitely essential that there is housing benefit and job seekers allowance though, to help people when times are tough. It was of help when I was made redundant for 4 months.
I am pretty pleased with the budget actually, my wages are so low that I will be £185 better off next year!
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Even despite government pledges to build low cost housing, developers and buy-to-let landlords are very adept at minimising the provision of this low cost housing, as greater profits can be made elsewhere.
What this means is that in a great deal of areas, there is not an even range of rental properties available in all price bands. You only need one property at each extreme to create the price range from which to draw the median.
This means that often there is a completely uneven spread, and the great bulk of properties in an area often fall between the fiftieth and seventieth percentile, making it nigh on impossible to find a home affordable on the adjusted housing benefit.
While I am in favour of, or at least resigned to, a number of the measures in this budget, this one is unneccessarily harsh.
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I am pretty pleased with the budget actually, my wages are so low that I will be £185 better off next year!
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