"Bedroom Tax"

So in April I will be one of those people that at some point will be hit with the bedroom tax. We'll survive initially on the fact that my sister and niece are here but when they have gone we'll have one bedroom too many and that, in the eyes of the government, is one bedroom too many.

Now I have to say me and my mum were planning on moving to a smaller place anyway but reactions on forums have really hit me, some people are total bastards!


These people aren't MPs, they aren't rich idiots living in la-la land either. These are just normal everyday people.

OK the internet is full of "Trolls" and people who come online just to be "different" and upset people. But they seem to have gotten a lot of funny ideas.

Take me and my mum. When Cat moves out we'll have to pay for our spare bedroom. I say pay, I mean our housing benefits will be cut a bit. Now to be honest I don't really care about that, it won't be too much to pay, and as I said in the opening me and my mum WANT to move to a two bedroom flat/house.

The thing is we're being made to pay because the government want us out of the house. They want us out because other people need bigger houses. They don't care where me and my mum end up, just as long as we're not in this house anymore which is too big for us.

Well let me tell you this. For a start it isn't "too big", the bedroom I've lived in the last 20 years is the same size (well a little bigger) then our bathroom. This is my home and if I'm moving I don't want to live on floor 500 of a block of flats with drug dealers and drunks.

Now lets look at someone else. Little Miss Bitch Face (based on a real life person my friends.) She lived in a house with her mum and dad, she had a baby knowing that the baby would have to sleep in her room (maybe smaller then mine), she choose to have it. Now Bitch and baby boy are sleeping in a small box room. Smart move? To move out and get on with life, to get yourself moving in a positive direction.

No.

The right move according to Bitch Face is to have ANOTHER baby. Thereby forcing her into emergency homing.

Little Miss Bitch Face wanted another baby to get a bigger house. She wanted another baby so she could get more money. She wanted another baby to put off working again, she's planning on having a baby with a man she's known for 4 months because it'll stop her having to go back to work. She wants at least 3 more.

Real person. Her words not mine.

My mum had to move to a council house because of my dad, she had a house and a mortgage and three children. When my dad came back he stole her money and didn't pay bills. My mum was young and naive and the system was there to save her, me and my two sisters. 90% of the time living here we've been paying rent, the only reason we're not right now is because we haven't got the income. My mum had to give up work to look after my Nan full time and I've been looking for a better job. This "tax" (which isn't really a tax I know but its the name its been given in the media) isn't going to magic me a 2 bedroom home to live in, it won't magic me a job that pays better.

But to be honest I don't care. Me and my mum want a 2 bedroom place, a nice place mind you. And maybe the amount I'll have to pay for the spare room till then will be minimal. Though technically if the government wants me out right now maybe getting Plymouth Community Homes to rehouse us fast would be better then to worry about my benefits.

No what really annoys me is the stupidity of it all.

I've known this lady called Barbara my whole life, her son has a serious disability that means he has to have full time care. Apparently under this law he'll lose 14% of his housing benefit because he doesn't "need" the spare bedroom. Because the poor carer should just, I dunno, sleep on the floor I guess and be happy with it.

This is what really annoys me. Pensioners (as they should be) are exempt, then again pensioners also probably have the most "spare rooms", but the council can't be seen to throw grannies out of their homes can they?

When challenged about disabled people the PM told us that there is a fund for the most worthy of cases... Well how are we meant to tell who the worthiest of cases is? If Bitch Face flashed her tits at some council guy she'd possibly become a "worthy" case. Cry a little with a baby?

Yes Barbara's son is a worthy cause, but I know a vulnerable adult who IS capable of not only looking after himself but working. He LOOKS disabled and that is why he'd be a worthy cause. But he works 6 days out of 7 in volunteering positions, if he looked for work he'd get it easy, he even admits that and admits that he just doesn't want the responsibility of HAVING to work. If he's ill most places don't care when you volunteer so taking a sick day to go get pissed is easy. Can't do that in full time work. So when he's able to get full disability why not?

Another case will be my mums friend. Now she has NOTHING wrong with her, but because the council basically said she was lying about some flimsy little thing that would put her on minimum benefits and she proved them wrong they now give her full benefits. If they took hers away would they just bow to the pressure of another law suit? (She didn't take them to court the first time I just meant in general.)

How is anyone going to be able to pick and choose who deserves what? Isn't that what they are meant to be doing right now? Yet there are still "Scroungers" and the like?

In an ideal world the government would actually think before doing these things. Wouldn't one easy way of sorting out housing be to make more? Instead of giving building permissions and the like so that the private sector grows build more council houses? Make sure rents don't go stupidly high in either sector?

I'm not against the new "tax" (which isn't a tax) but ask me my opinion again when I'm on a waiting list for this flat that I really should be living in but it just doesn't exist so I have to suffer the "tax" (which isn't really a tax).