Quick straw poll - the welfare £26K cap - good or bad?

[rustyrider]

But what we have is tax payers forking out for inflated rents paid to people with money invested in property.  This all comes back to Maggie selling off the council stock, the privatisation of the welfare state.

Bollocks, there's more 'social housing' about now than there ever has been.  All new developments must have at least 30% set aside for social housing.  But look what it's done for the rest of us.

I moved into a rented flat about 5 years ago.  New development where a few had been bought as buy to lets with the bulk bought by owner/occupiers.  Those that had bought had been told that the development was being aimed at essential workers so there were a couple of teachers, a serviceman, a nurse, two coppers and the rest were all respectable, professional people (if you count a professional footballer as respectable).  Even the rentals were let out to similar.  But, on the opposite side of the road was an identical block that was bought by the local housing authority and filled with the dregs of society.  I don't think one of them worked.  The one directly opposite me had a couple with 3 kids under 4 and the obligatory Staffie.  The only time this animal saw the outside world was when it was kicked out onto the balcony when it wanted a shit.  In 3 years I don't think I saw her dressed in anything other than a dressing gown while sitting on her arse watching telly.  Within 2 years the private owners were putting their places up for sale.  Of those that managed to sell, it was at a loss, to others that were buying to let as nobody else would touch them.  What had started out as a tidy looking, respectable area had turned into a slum and the amount of social housing increased even further.  I'll give it another 5 years before all of it will be rentals.

I got out and, while I would have preferred to buy, moved into another rented place.  This time a house, privately owned and in a village rather than a housing estate.  The letting agent came last week to do an inspection and make sure I wasn't trashing the place.  She was gobsmacked to find that I had pressure washed the driveway, repainted the garage door, repaired a drooping gutter and the place was cleaner than when I'd moved in.  It may not be mine but I live here and want a place that I feel comfortable inviting friends and relatives to.  Just because I don't own it doesn't mean I don't care about how it looks, unlike those that aren't paying the rent out of their own pocket.  If you don't have to work for something, why should you care about it?

Getting back onto topic, I think a £26k cap is too high.  I earn slightly over what this works out to as a salary.  I pay my own rent, rates, utility bills and food.  I own 3 cars and the bike, all bought and paid for, all taxed, Mot'd and insured and I still pay a percentage of the mortgage on the house I half own with my ex.  If I can do that on a net take home of £28k (as my P60 is laying here having just done my tax return), why the hell should anybody be given almost as much for doing foc all?

Meanwhile non of you care or want to do anything about the big money, the 100's billions pounds evey year that rich people avoid in taxation every single year.  The kind of money that can get this country out of the mess that's it 's in.

Not that nobody cares but it's totally irrelevant to this discussion.