You might be wondering (though of course you might not) what the panic-tweets were in aid of for the last few days.
Well, my landlord decided he wants to refurbish/sell our house, which leaves us facing eviction in two months time.
Now, this shouldn't really be a problem. Dave works, earns a fairly average national wage but we live in Sussex. Through an accident of birth, we find ourselves living in "London-By-the-Sea" where you are just about breaking even on a combined household income of 70k.
It's no good right-wingers spluttering into their Bordeaux, the average family home costs 250k here. That's a mortgage on salary variables of at LEAST 70k. Supposing of course you have a 40k DEPOSIT!! For a "nice" family home you need about 300k. If you're happy to live somewhere where your children might get stabbed on the way to school (yep, they really DO exist in Sussex) then you might be able to find four walls and a roof for 180k, but that still requires a combined income of 50K!! (YES, 50k) and a 30k deposit to buy a crap-hole with damp and drug dealers en-suite.
So, the problem is there's no-where to rent. Honestly, nowhere. You can do a Rightmove search and you might find 5 or 6 houses that look OK. Try calling the agent. The first three laughed at me and refused to take new registrations. "Call us every morning to see what's new" was their advice. "If we take a new property on, it'll be gone within the hour". The fact that we have 2 children apparently makes it even more hysterical. Yes, my husband works, no we have no pets, no we don't smoke, no we're not "DSS" (yet!) but children??? Yeurggggh, they're so MESSY and NOISY - sorry, professional couples with no offspring will always take precedent.
Perhaps we could buy somewhere? No chance. There are 4 - yep FOUR - shared ownership properties advertised in the three counties that surround us.
Perhaps we could move to somewhere cheaper? Well my Dad is 89 and frail and my Mum is struggling to look after him. The one thing that gives him joy is my children. What kind of bitch would move away?
Perhaps we could scale down? Find a smaller place? Well, if we're really lucky we might find a two bed flat for the four of us for £750 a month!! I'm afraid bankruptcy will still stalk us at that price.
So how flipping bonkers is it that a fairly average family have to consider hitting the panic button of emergency council housing lists or bankruptcy? We just can't afford to live anywhere. If we could, there is nowhere to live.
Options :
- Move away and break my parent's hearts
- Become homeless
- Rent a crap hole too small for us
- I get a job and practically kill myself
- Find rich benefactors willing to "lend" us a home for 6 months until we sort out the mess.
Millions of families are facing the same nightmare. If they aren't facing it now, it seems from my experience that they're just one eviction notice away from disaster. You can work, you can do your best, you can juggle and duck and dive, but there's just nowhere to live. If there is, in many parts of the country, you can't afford it anyway.
This IS a diary, so I have to be honest don't I? Hopefully, we'll find the perfect home in the next few weeks, but if we don't we'll be homeless and at the mercy of the state. How? How can that be? What went wrong? Are wages too low? Rents too high? Houses too expensive? Housing too scarce? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
It's a right royal mess really isn't it?
Oh Sue, I know how you feel. I live in a four bed house in London. I have just had the letter from the council telling me that the new cap on housing benefit for my property will be £100 pounds per week less than the cap I have now. £100 pounds per week! How can we possibly afford that? Even though I run a business, it's still very much in the start up stages and not making nearly enough. I have 2 sons at uni who live with me and have part time jobs so I can't really expect them to contribute much more. Even if they jacked in their studies and went to work full time, any extra earnings they make would be deducted from the new HB rate leaving us with nothing to cover the shortfall.
ReplyDeleteI rang the council advice line as the letter directed and it appears the housing department will be of no help whatsoever although I still have a child under 16. They are living in cloud cuckoo land telling me I should have no problem finding a place in London that is not only that cheap, but I can do it with no deposit. Are they mad? The long and short of it is the council doesn't want to know until I have been evicted and I am literally in the street and then the only accommodation they will offer is temporary B&B.
It's beyond scandalous!
Close to being beyond words. Do be honest and do keep writing, the truth must be told.
ReplyDeleteYou are luckier than many people who are homeless, you have a lot more options. Particularly those of us with mobility issues. I didn't have half the choices you do when I was homeless and spent months in a very difficult situation. I hope you realise that as much as your situation is, sucky many people have it much much worse.
ReplyDeletemove in with your mom and dad then claim overcrowding,
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when use to apply for jobs with a house included ie gardener housekeeper etc and they always stressed "must love animals and children" but then ended their advert saying "no applicants with kids or pets"!!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 16.57
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't live in Africa in the middle of a drought either. I don't live under a terrible dictatorship (oh, wait....) I didn't die the many times I cld have.
However there is a point where "lucky" may not actually apply.
I also think the whole blog post was about that very "luckiness" you rushed to point out to me. I simply say we shouldn't be in this situation as my hubby works.
Isn't LHA about £1000 per month in Sussex for a 3 bedroom property? Rightmove isn't always the best place to look.I have found really lovely properties by looking privately and good landlords who are not greedy and just want good tenants.Come on Sue,keep the faith.Reading this blog I know you have the capacity to find a perfect home for your family and near to your parents.God bless.
ReplyDelete"Many people have it much worse" wasn't really the point of the post, though, was it? So why even mention that and then offer no real advice? Bit pointless.
ReplyDeleteWe were in the same position but instead of the landlord evicting us the letting agency were trying to get us to sign up to a further year on contract - which would have left us with the place we had for another year (2 years in a dingy, mould infested flat with no hot water, no bed - the bed we had was broken in many places and my husband was the only one who'd sleep in it - and they refused to rectify any problems.)
The area we were in was exactly how you described the kids getting shanked on their way to school. It wasn't uncommon to find a needle on the street, various used condoms, CID were constantly knocking on our door, there was constant drug raids and one time a murder happened next door. Our neighbour was also a violent alcoholic who hung a man out of his window (second floor) and threatened him - would have been another murder if said man had slipped.
We had no other choice but to move. Okay our choice could have been to stay there but no chance in hell we would. Finding property was a nightmare. There were areas that were a little better than the one we were in, but not by much. Living back in my husband's home town was a little pricier but in the end we made the decision.
This place we're in now came on the market suddenly and was like a dream - it just appeared and within days we were signing a contract and paying a deposit. But it took us over a year to get here. A lot of landlords wouldn't take housing and council welfare (refuse to call it benefit) and this was our problem.
We don't own a TV as we watch everything on-line. We make budgets and stick to them. We're also a car free family and it's a nightmare...but without these sacrifices I don't think we'd survive. I even got rid of my mobile, for crying out loud!
I know that there are things some people can't sacrifice and that things are different for every family and it's not always the answer, either.
I honestly believe that wages are very low and the cost of living is crazy high - along with property rental and mortgage rates. I prefer the New Zealand way of buying people housing rather than supply them with council housing - and the idea is that the NZ government make payments on the house. If a family so wishes to purchase the house then they can do, but they must pay back whatever the government has paid into the mortgage.
I think in the long run the UK government would save themselves money if they adopted this scheme and it would stop greedy landlords.
That is very bad news sue but as you know i live in crawley and on my new estate the rent for a 4 bedroom house detached is £1400 per month which is a lot in my book and certainly out of the reach of the ordinary worker
ReplyDeleteThe price of property in my studies for sussex was correct up until 1983 at this point i was retiring from the bank with ill health and providing at least two people were in work you could manage ok
My house for example was 5 years old 3 bed semi in the best part of burgess hill and valued at £33000 at sale time in 1990 when I moved it was £100000
This did not mean that you could live in the best areas like haywards heath or any of the villages however but at least you were ok in the rest of sussex
The average wage at this point in 1983 like shop work and airport work was £3 per hour and that is a very crucial point as my diaries are spot on
In 1984 i found things across the whole of sussex getting more expensive and this continued till 1990 and at this point the average wage as outlined above had risen to £4 per hour
So how could we have gone from £33000 in 1983 to £100000 in 1990? when the average wage had only gone up by £1 per hour ?
Well the only way you could do that is by deception by your bank and the customer not telling the truth about their earnings there was no other way of achieving such a large increase in the value of a property I did mention it to the FSA at that point and have done so many times over the years as I could see very clearly the damage being done to the communities of sussex
Had I not retired from the bank of England then we in all probability would not be in this mess today those that know me would agree as it would be very difficult to shut a man of such integrity like myself up
I do have to live with this and it has burdened me many have said of me it's not your fault you had retired your too hard on yourself but none the less I failed and sometimes in life it's best to hold your hand up and be counted
The governor of the bank of England failed who was fit although his argument was it was out of his brief but to be honest everyone must have seen or witnessed the corruption going on all around them as their house price was shooting up but turned a blind eye
ReplyDeleteHouse pries can only rise by a first time buyer alone and with a one bedroom flat in crawley in 1990 at £80000 with an interest rate at 10% the question is who were the buyers? And that answer is there were very few first time buyers 90% were speculators and that my friends is the only answer of which I have always maintained and always will do as it WAS the only answer and could never be anything else
Deception after deception was rife not only in the uk but also the usa and now every ordinary life now in going forward over the next 20 years will be blighted or in many cases destroyed
The same wage today like my wife's for example is £6 per hour so from 1983 when I undertook these studies till today the house prices of gone up from the 3 bed semi which I lived in 1983 at £33000 and today's price £300000 an increase of £267000 with wages from £3 per hour in 1983 to today of six to seven pounds per hour
So as you can see quite plainly the uk was not a viable place to live at all how could it be? as it has been built around greed selfishness and deception and that my friends is the conservative way of which I can assure you there is no turning back and today's children will have to bear the full force of this major calamity that we all now live in
Today's children in the vast majority will never own a home my personal view is don’t even try just do your best in your studies and just in general study study study and then in words of the president of the usa just before a hurricane hits GET OUT OF TOWN it will be the best move you ever made trust me millions have and live abroad don’t make the vast mistakes that I have in my life let me be a lesson to all young people across the uk don't ever say no one told me because I just have
Be assertive take control of your own destinies don't leave to your mp or the government understand this blog print it out learn from it it’s the truth yes it’s painful life is but at least it’s the truth and that in itself does bring hope as another of my neighbours leaves in November to Perth in Australia to start a wonderful life and the reason why is because he’s a very skilled carpenter and will be in much demand
Getting back on topic sue i feel very bad for your predicament you find yourself in and have no answer at all as i don't believe their is one for those who are not well
ReplyDeleteThere has never been a day in where i have said to myself how do i get out of this mess and after 30 years i'm still here the foreign embassies in London are not helpful yes they all love me but the underlying fact is I'm not well and they cant allow someone who is unwell into their country on that basis
So therefore my ever ending struggle to get out of the uk continues but i do live in hope that a miracle may happen at some point
Yes 30 years of trying to get to a county outside of eu as a sick person is the hardest thing i have ever encountered i wished i was taught that at school what i was taught at school bore no relationship of anything the uk is today in fact what i was taught at school bore no relationship to anything of worthwhile or value in my lifetime
I just hope and pray sue that you and your family will be able to work something out and will of course be thinking of you
I should also add that on my divorce in 1990 i moved to a one bed new flat in crawley for £80000 and found that all the other flats that were sold to first time buyers were short lived as they got turfed out for not paying their mortgages and were subsequently snapped up by elderly speculators
ReplyDeletebringing my family up with my new wife and family of two children was indeed difficult and had to spend the next fifteen years on the social housing list
So you can see from this epic tale of woe i was very intimate with the credit crunch and for a very good reason I LIVED IT
Fourbanks Sorry mate but nope you didnt ...If you could afford a flat for 80 grand in 1990 then the credit crunch didnt touch you did it..Did it really?
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to be judgmental especially of those perceived to be higher up the greasy pole therefore in some way less “deserving” or “unworthy”. I do not begrudge Sue or her family one pence of their money or their house in fact for the work she has done money and a better life is due to her. I am long term disabled I live alone and am my own nurse, comforter and provider. As with many others I get only I.B. most of which is gone on modest household bills before I even see it. For some time I have been seeing less and less as basic costs continue to rise. It is going to be a hard winter. I am grateful I am able to survive at all if I lost my rented home or my tiny income I would die shortly thereafter simple as that. I am too ill to house hunt and would not be able to move from BB to BB. I wish Sue and her family well and hope they find a suitable home soon.
ReplyDeleteThe writing is on the wall in bold red letters it cannot be more clear than this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/12/george-osborne-warning-cuts-impact
I'm so sorry you're having this crisis on top of everything, Sue. Hoping hard that something suitable turns up and the house move that you really didn't need or want goes as smoothly as possible. Take care.
ReplyDeleteSue,
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound like living somewhere that you might get stabbed is beneath you (which by the way it is) - but someone has to live in those places.
I'm not saying it should be you, or in fact anyone. Shouldn't we be doing something about those places, rather than just refusing to live in them? What about all the people who discover they really do have not alternative...
Good luck with the house hunting!
Corinne
Ok heres a worse one for you ? A work colleague who had a mortgage a wife and a child facing eviction.
ReplyDeleteHis wife has had cancer, chrons disease, his son has just been diagnosed with epilepsy.
He lousy rat of a boss wanted to shut the company he worked for down. So rathe rthan pay redundancy he draastically reduce their hours. so from 40 hours per week down to 14 the sweet spot. No help from state. he left them suffering for two years and finally made them redundant. The bosses son worked with my colleague for 4 years and he said to them one day he was enquiring on how much redundancy he would have to pay, and he said it was a fortune so he tried starving them out.
My colleague now back in a job but the arears he built up basically means he has lost his house. his wife and son now live at his wifes mothers, the father is tidying up and getting stuff in order. now thats a f-cked up situation. State won't help.
We all remember the downfall of Gordon brown Gordon Brown calls Labour supporter a 'bigoted woman'
ReplyDeletewell i will meet David Cameron at some point and will be his downfall
As i have always said the lord works in mysterious ways
The rent is too damn high.
ReplyDeleteNot only here, but elsewhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0
I live in central brighton with partner, 2 children and a dog and are household income is about half the 70k you say you are breaking even on. And we rent at £1200/month. Its absolutely ridicoulous to call 70k a breakeven level. Live a little more frugally....
ReplyDeleteI do agree though buying a house is near impossible. Don't dismay, though, as the continuing house price crash is gathering steam again.
13 years of Labour has left 2-3 million taxpayers priced out of property. Weve worked for NOTHING. Slaves.
ReplyDeleteIgnored by our local Labour MP's who made hundreds of thousands in personal profits by voting on policies to keep the housing bubble inflated.
House Prices were purposefully manipulated to rise by 300% in a decade. Consider without the bank bailouts, the average house price would have merely reverted to its long temr affordability as a proportion of income.
Which would mean over 50% falls from peak.
The ability to pay for capital is a cornerstone of a democracy.
The politicians and bankers have destroyed our lives. And will continue to do so.
I hate them all. Hate them.
You have to make sacrifices to buy a house. When I was younger, we made sacrifices and bought a cheap place and made do. I had to work hard and do without some luxuries you enjoy today, but eventually we paid off the mortgage and managed to move into a bigger house.
ReplyDeleteIf you had done the same instead of buying the latest gadget that comes out, then maybe you wouldnt be in such a precarious position.
Uncontrolled immigration is the underlying problem. As immigrants bid in the marketplace, prices go up, it is how housing space is ratified. That means less space for the indigenous population as net immigration is so high. The south east suffers the most from this. The housing crisis won't go away until this core issue is addressed.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous @ 14:12
ReplyDeleteBlah, blah, blah...
The truth is if you were young today, no matter how much sacrifice you would make you could not buy your house. House prices have risen exponentially compared to wages, so keep your nagging boomer speech to yourself, the greed of your generation is what caused this mess in the first place, please do not lecture the people who are now paying for your luxurious life and soon to pay for your pension.
Diddums.
ReplyDeleteI am young today. I'll be buying a house soon in the town I grew up in.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be cheap, but we'll manage it by tightening our belts and putting a bit more work in.
Yes house prices are outrageous, we've got Labour to thank for that. But life is hard, and so am I.
@15:24
ReplyDeletecorrected for you:
... you will buy rent a house from the bank for the foreseeable future...
unless you grew up in the middle of nowhere and it is cheap as chips because there is little job prospect.
It's called a mortgage.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, the house will eventually be mine, and you will doubtless still be crying into your chips.
Oh you anon people shut the f*** up with your Labour caused it crap.labour didnt start the house price boom you idiots Bloody thatcher set the process in motion by selling off the council house stock cheap and people then sold at a profit which started the rise of private stock.Banks responded by giving out mortgages at inflated multiples of salary and the prices continued to rise in line with that process.Fast forward 30 years and america did the same with its stock because the banks knew they could factor on any sub prime bad debt in a merry go round of refinancing and the only losers were err everyone apart from the banks ,add the casino banking and hedge fund etc fraud that is the international ponzi scheme of em all,and now we are here at crapsville with the bastards still taking big big bonuses and getting bailed out by us while making it harder for people to buy as they expect 30% deposits on a mortgage not the 5 or 10 it used to be so people cant get on the ladder whic pushes up rentals artificially high which puts houses out of reach even further.Corporate greed caused the crash and nothing the tory govt will do or say they will do will alleviate the smash and grab so yep we are all f***ed and when the cuts bite and you all feel it welll....
ReplyDeleteOh dear Sue, as if it is not bad enough facing potential homelessness with two small children you have to put up with the anonymous posters who cannot even be bothered to read your post properly, want to add a hierarchy of homelessness to their hierarchy of disability and can only offer sanctimonious lectures from their cosy, secure, ivory towers, I hope their towers get rampant, rising damp, lol.
ReplyDeleteI cannot offer much more than sympathy and the hope that you find somewhere in time along with the suggestion that you check out repossessions which is what we did when facing potential homelessness, they can be surprisingly low-priced and therefore affordable even on a low income although they may need some work done on them, a bit of rising damp without the sanctimony is easily dealt with, some LAs even offer grants. Good luck, Annie
Well thats at least one anon poster with some sense of sympathy and good heartedness.The poster is right about people adding thier own level of hierarchy to the plight of the sick and disabled and the poorer citizens amongst us and its nothing new which is sad How many of us get the old...you dont look ill ...lazy bastard rhetoric form people and some of the anon posters comments on here reinforce that.
ReplyDeleteKeep believing that rubbish becuase thats what the govt want you to think and when the cuts such as caps on this cuts on this start to really bite and you find yourselves in that same unfortunate position then maybe you all wont be so bloody judgemental then when you and your kids are cold and hungry and you know what it could happen to any of us.The vitriolic comments of some of the above anon posters just goes to prove we are a divided society and that itself is no way to carry on.Keep em divided keep em under...well done its working on some of you...
[QUOTE]Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI live in central Brighton with partner, 2 children and a dog and are household income is about half the 70k you say you are breaking even on. And we rent at £1200/month. Its absolutely ridiculous to call 70k a break even level. Live a little more frugally....[/QUOTE]
I think you'll find sue slipped up with that figure ?
I certainly did NOT slip up with that figure.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd read the article properly you'd see I was talking about how much you need to earn to get a mortgage for a 250 k house.
I was NOT talking about how much I live on for goodness sake. Anyone who had ever read my blog would be aware of posts like this http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2011/05/poverty-cooking.html
I really wonder what makes someone come onto the private blog of someone about to become bankrupt and lose their home and tell them to "live a little more frugally"
If my family "got by" on half of 70k I wouldn't be in the mess I am would I?????
In case anyone is still too confused to work out the simple sum it's
Joint income = 70k x 3 = 210k
Deposit = AT LEAST 15% of 250k (House price) = 37.5k
TO GET A HOUSE, not to live on.
I wonder how Anonymous at 2.12 knows what gadgets I do and don't have?
ReplyDeleteWe bought our first house when I was 21 - it WAS very tough. Then I got sicker and we bought somewhere smaller to get by. In the end, we had to sell that too when I got just too ill to work.
Do you anonymous people really think we didn't try everything BEFORE we got sick?
Really all these anonymous comments can be summed up in one sentence :
ReplyDelete"If for any reason you fail in our system, we will hate you and judge you."
If all you mean is that with a combined income of 70k than you still have problems buying a house then I'm with you 100%. The simple fact is house prices are way to high in relation to earnings. Something will give, and it will be house prices, but this may take some time. And I see you have a problem with finding another rental and I feel for you there as I could ifnd myself in that position easily.
ReplyDeleteBut you did say "Through an accident of birth, we find ourselves living in "London-By-the-Sea" where you are just about breaking even on a combined household income of 70k."
And it was this breakeven phrase which I thought was ridiculous. On 70k a year you can easily save significant amounts every momth by being a little more frugal.
Oh, I see, sorry for the confusion, I meant in housing terms.
ReplyDeleteSorry sue you are indeed right those seeking a property in my area for example have to have a family income of £70000 per year to buy my house plus a £50000 deposit
ReplyDeleteLucky for me my house is a social one it is identical to all of the private ones on my estate the only difference being the interiors fixtures and fittings with mine being at rock bottom and all needs replacing at my cost and just 3 years old "disgraceful"
The only outside difference is the social house have a round poor quality outside light with the private ones a quality vertical light
There is only one tax which will be acceptable now, and that is a Land Value Tax. To REPLACE income tax. This has been discussed for over a century, and sometimes adopted by Political Parties, yet never implemented. Why? Because 1% own 70% of the land in the UK. Land which was stolen in the 12C by the Normans, through to Fat Parliamentary Landlords, during the 1846 Enclosures acts. Just 1252 people own over 60% of Scotland! Just 6000 people own over two thirds of the UK! These are figures from a Banana Republic. Meanwhile, hardworking taxpayers, cannot afford a shoebox to live in, and are forced to waste tens upon tens of thousands in rent. Tax Wealth, not Income. Which is a tax on wealth production. Those at the top have had it too good for too long. The UK MUST become a democracy, and leave its feudal roots behind forever. Exchange Income Tax for Land Value Tax.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Sue and it's incredible how many people just don't seem to be able to grasp the details of what you're trying to say!
ReplyDeleteSince I became ill 5 years ago I've had similar experiences to you and been utterly frustrated by the system that many, blinkered, people seem to think is throwing money at people like us.
All I ask is for a half-decent place to live and the chance to work part time to pay for it, which by and large I do. I'm still in both financial poverty and living in a cold, damp box neither of which help my regular bouts of ill health. The blame I place firmly at the door of neo-liberal policies successive governments have implemented in order to appease the reactionaries and the get-rich-quick elements of our society.
The fact of the matter is that wages have failed to keep up with rising house prices and rents. 15 years ago I was earning £13k a year and paying £65pw rent, now the same job pays £16k and rent for the same flat is around £130pw. That was in the same town where you live, a place I was priced out of years ago. Now I live in a town with high unemployment, where average rents for a studio flat are £90pw and most available jobs pay the minumum wage: I'd be lucky to scrape by on around £80pw after paying rent, council tax and other outgoings.
To those who post comments attacking you, can you not get it into your heads that the facts are plain to see: that our economic system is causing great hardship and is unfarly stacked against those classed as uneconomically productive due to no fault of their own? Probably not!
Sue, if you're serious about wanting a quality of life, for god's sake move your ENTIRE family (including your mother and father) to somewhere cheaper. It's what we all have to do. My parents live in a place where the houses are 400k - average wage 17k. I'd be a bit of a cunt to try and live there and then whine.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - PLAN! I'll get the compulsory order to serve my parents first thing tomorrow!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse above fuc you you are the c**t here now again do one TROLL. And as for democracy being a fair and level playing field with no influence from vested interests or biased political agendas then read the latest above articles on here and tell me you really think this ,or indeed any,govt isnt sly ,devious underhand sons of bitches who care less about democrcy and proper process and the people who voted them in .England is being sold bit by bit to the highest bidder now more than ever and we think we are all in it together.The future is fucked now and forever for your kids and the more dived we become the easier it is for the Bullingdon Bastards to get away with it so for once WAKE THE FUCK UP and realise you ,me,any of us do not matter one bit becuase they know we will take whatever shit they give us and do NOTHING...welcome to the new serfdom
ReplyDeleteSue all I can say is HUGS. It is a horrible situation they put so many of us in.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at my bank statement today...wondering if I am wise keeping this house that will be mine in just over 4 years time but at present I am paying £40.90 for the policy and of the £180 interest I pay £100.
£152 a month for gas & electric including debt payments.
£33.75 water.
£455.20 went into my account.
If my house was in a fit state to live in and sell, I would then be at the mercy of a landlord. I may be getting my ceiling done next week by a friend offering free labour, bless him. Depending on costs of materials I may just have the open beam look, minus the dust and possibility of the rest collapsing at any time. It is stressful in itself but I would have no choice as to when people came in to fix things if I was renting, although I could stick two fingers up at the WCA & DLA for a while and live off the proceeds for a few years. I may even have better health if I can find a place without damp and debris. Sorry this isn't about my situation but because of the situation I am in I appreciate how scary and awful the situation you are in is. For all the problems with this place the thought of having to leave in 2 months without the benefit of having at least a bit of a cash sum to live off for a few years and the horrendous task of the physical move and all the instability of not knowing if you will find somewhere at all suitable in a suitable or unsuitable area is a stress that would be pretty awful...it is hard enough when able bodied.
So I say HUGS & send love, hope you find something...hard to find the positive at times eh? xxx
Really all these anonymous comments can be summed up in one sentence :
ReplyDelete"If for any reason you fail in our system, we will hate you and judge you."
- That's the sort of chip on your shoulder crap that reduces sympathy for the disabled. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Another above anon commenter with some heart and compassion so well done whoever you are.We hva to realise that society is under threat from this neolibcon rabble and its all been pre planned as they didnt just sleep thier way through the labour years,and in some respects there is little differnce between (new)red old blue or yellow policys, and it has one aim...to enrich the rich and have them keep thier power..the new fuedalism...which is why i say we have to fight becuase unless you are in the top level of moneyed elite WE are all f****ing peasants as far as THEY can see.Stuart hall in the guardian supplemet G2 has an article called The march of the neoliberals and it reveals it all.These are the new jackbooted bastards trying to trample over any aspirations or efforts to keep society together and fragmentation is the order of the day and they use our money to achieve this.Sell everything by stealth to the highest bidder(for gods sake we dont even own the tax offices or nhs buying departments anymore they are all privately owned and they charge us for the use)and we will have nothing and we are setting the road to a sad future indeed for our kids.So while we aragiue about who has what and who shouldnt have what they are laughing all the way to the bank ...an offshore tax haven one of course.so yeah divided we are and fall we will UNLESS .....
ReplyDeleteYeah sarcboy, I mean, why take responsibility for your own failings when you can blame someone else eh?
ReplyDeleteThere's more to life than money. And there are plenty of places for you to go...
To Anonymous 16 Sept 2011 23:27
ReplyDeleteNo, life is money, unfortunately. Without money, you can't buy food, or afford a roof over your head. Oh wait I know. Build shanty towns and go to the local reservoir for water, live off berries and nuts, that would be a life eh?
But how can one live naturally with the level of pollution and the private ownership of public land. Poverty in Britain is different to poverty in a third world country but it is still poverty determined by the standard of living in the country you are a citizen of. Do we really want a race to the bottom?
And people are aware that humans are the most intelligent species with emotional intelligence and emotional feelings and most of all a self awareness.
Self awareness which means you are aware of the state of the country you live in, witness to how well you could possibly live and the inequalities of society which you were born into.
Best wishes to sue, I may be "anon" but I read your blog and twitterings.
perhaps there should be a limit to how many homes one family, person should have.
ReplyDeleteThen there would be a shortage of rentals? Maybe we are becoming a nation of landlords. It must be said, that it was the avarice, the striving for more and more money that vendors/punters wished to attribute to their houses, that, along with the willingness of estate agents to encourage that greed, which also contributed to the way things are today. The British seem adept at making money/profit from the human basics, shelter, heating and food.
we have no shame, and in fact gloat over our good fortune.
Nationalise property: now there you really would have a revolution.