In the news

So, someone has realised that you can move anywhere you want, without a reason, and claim Housing Benefit on the property you rent. Do you what people on benefits to have to ask permission every time that they want to move? Consider the cost of that before you answer that bit.

Then consider that Housing Benefit will only pay you the 3rd quartile of the average rent for an area, and is now capped at 4 bedrooms.

I've just been and looked at the rent amounts for Kensington and Chelsea, they can be seen here - https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/SearchResults.aspx?LocalAuthorityId=20&LHACategory=999&Month=6&Year=2012&SearchPageParameters=true

The most that he could be getting now is £400 per week, which would be a saving of £500 per week, according to the report. It could well be less that the £400 that he's getting as well, as that would be if he was on Jobseekers or Income Support.

I doubt he was getting the full £900, given the way that benefit rules have changed, but he could have been if he had been claiming long enough at the one address, and not moved, and so was on an earlier version of the scheme.

Quite how, when in full posession of the facts, this can be said to 'anger taxpayers' when its all a load of shit is beyond me. But then I know about how HB works, having been an assesment officer for a while, and now being support staff.

If he is getting £2000 per week to cover the rent, Kensington and Chelsea need to be looking into it, I can only see one way in which that could be done, and that is via a short term provision (that I'm not 100% sure still exisits) that protects people that haven't claimed Housing Benefit in the last 12 months, and will cover up to your full rent for 2 months only, so that you can find somewhere cheaper to rent without being totally fucked over by your landlord, and so you don't fuck the landlord over too. I don't see that provision as unreasonable.

So, is the paper wrong, or the Council? Will we ever find out? The Council cannot defend itself here, the data protection act stops it commenting to a large extent. All it could say is that the Housing Benefit has been assesed correctly, and point the paper at the link I have.

It's all their in the article with the quote 'The Telegraph reports'. It's clearly a load of bollocks, and there are many articles in right-wing papers demonising non-white middle-classes, from Xmas being cancelled, the song White Christmas being banned and ludicrous shite about 'immigrants' who claim huge amounts in Housing Benefit to live in upmarket areas. Sadly they sucker in drooling half-wits at a fair old rate, as can be seen from the comments on this thread.