Election 2017 - What if I cant afford to pay my rent?

Some top notch journalism from the BBC:

Tracy Strassburg - a mother of two boys from Nunhead in south-east London - has an even bigger shortfall in her finances.
Her freelance job as a yoga teacher provides her with £640 a month.
Yet the rent on her small two-bedroom flat is £1,400. Even with housing benefit of £946 a month, she is still left borrowing £300 a month from her mother, as well as using credit cards.
“It’s really stressful. A few days before rent day every month I start to go into a panic,” she says.
But the stress is not just because of the finances.
Since landlords sometimes want their property back, she has been forced to move repeatedly.
In his lifetime, her seven-year-old son has had six different homes, each more cramped than the last.
“Every time we move, we have to downgrade, because the rent goes up, and we have to move down,” she says.
“So we started off in a perfectly acceptable sized house, and we’ve gone slowly, slowly down into this tiny little place.”
She wants the next government to introduce five-year leases to give tenants more security.

bbc.co.uk/news/business-39974177

God there must be something she could do, if only I could work out what it is ?

I know some cruel cynics would say “get a proper job” but speaking as an Agency driver that £640 p.m. looks a king’s ransom, so after literally hours racking my brains over this poor woman’s terrible plight, I thought “hang on, maybe there could actually be some cheaper places to live in the UK than London■■?”

Turns out I was right. A quick check of some of the run down and economically depressed areas of the North East turns up some cheaper rents, as in about £1100 per month cheaper - who would have thunk it?

So maybe she could, erm,

MOVE

(or get a proper job, or even both).

Funny how it doesn’t make this statement of the bleedin’ obvious in the article, perhaps that would be seen as too unkind to this woman who has given up her time to be used as fodder for this rubbish journalism to be generated to fill some BBC webspace.

To be more serious for a moment, I would be far too embarrassed to tell the world I’m struggling because my £640 freelance / pretend job doesn’t cover my extortionate London rent

to cap it all despite getting into a panic before rent day each month it seems she wants tying into this living hell for 5 years at a stretch

The problem isn’t how little she earns, it’s how extortionate the rents are in London. About time something was done to stop squeezing the working classes out

You heartless beast KTM , that poor woman works her fingers to the bone averaging 80 hour weeks with pick and shovel at the yoga face, imagine the trauma to all those trophy wives if they had to miss a yoga appointment, i’m crying in me roast pork dinner here

A child !!!, nay two children, poor little urchins, at this rate they’ll be forced up into wood burning chimneys to sweep the soot down in Maida Vale to repay their poor mother’s debts if those dastardly tories get re-elected, doesn’t anyone think of the children any more
I’d gladly give up my index linked imaginary finial salad pension, if only i had one to look forward to, in order for this struggling family working all hours the good Lord sends to live in accommodation more subsidised, sorry, suitable

Someone should get onto the govt petitions website to get something started, a move to Chelsea or Notting Hill, those renowned areas of diversity, would help cut down the travelling between working class clients our yoga sister has to endure, it’s just not right in this day and age that hard working people are victimised in such a way, she has human rights too.

sob

i think the landlords might want some of those rights seeing as this skanks brats have been rehoused 7 times in 7 years means she got the house.blinkered the remainder of the rent and got evicted on a yearly basis.then its back to the social sobing me and my brats are homeless…that might be the more accurate picture

Typical BBC propaganda agenda.Shocker average single wage earner can’t afford to house themselves let alone a family in London and the South East and Landlords aren’t housing charities and housing benefit isn’t an unlimited infinite resource when that should be the job of income protection insurance.Let alone for a single wage earner with the non job wage of a ‘Yoga teacher’.While anyone born and bred in the region knows that’s been the same for almost 40 years if not more.

The BBC agenda as usual going along the lines of let’s increase urbanisation by making London’s urban sprawl even bigger and with it the population levels and resulting demand of inward gravitation from other parts of the country,let alone over seas,which are causing the problem,that’ll fix it.All on the basis of wiping out yet more of what remains of the surrounding counties because too many people think they want to live in ‘London’ but they don’t really want to live in the resulting over populated inner city environment ( zb hole ) that actually defines ‘London’.On the equally flawed basis that the streets of London are supposedly paved with gold regards wage levels and job opportunities.

On that note the obvious answer in this case is how did she end up in the situation of being a mother of two children and a single wage earner.Let alone a single wage earner with a low paying non job like Yoga teacher and why then add to the problem of that by wanting to stay in the worst of all worlds of living in one of the crappiest and most expensive,if not the crappiest and most expensive,parts of the country.In which housing demand will always outrun supply unless anyone likes living in a high rise flat.With even the cost of that probably requiring a housing benefit top up in many cases.

Foreign investors should never be allowed to buy London properties .that is one of the reasons working class Londoner’s cannot afford a home in our capital.Its no joke for thousands of Londoners …

Beetlejuice:
Foreign investors should never be allowed to buy London properties .that is one of the reasons working class Londoner’s cannot afford a home in our capital.Its no joke for thousands of Londoners …

If that was correct the problem of housing costs wouldn’t involve every market sector whether private sale or rent,regardless of BTL landlords’ or sellers’ nationality status.

When it’s more like the combination of people thinking that the place has an infinite amount of space to house an infinite population growth.Which historically translates as too many people who really want a house built in the countryside of the surrounding counties because they don’t actually want the downsides of what living in the ‘Capital’ actually involves,IE what can only logically be a high rise flat within London’s real ( pre 1965 at least ) borders bearing in mind the level of demand created by that unsustainable population growth.Combined with recent generations having swallowed the idea of wage restraint and people from other parts of the country,if not other countries, moving in because they think its streets are paved with gold.

The fact is it’s simply just that the place has run out of space to house everyone,who’d like to think,that they’d like to live there.At least unless they like living in a cramped high rise apartment block.The BBC’s agenda having been made clear in that it supports the idea of further expansion of London’s urban sprawl into the Green Belt of what remains of its surrounding counties.All on the same historic flawed thinking that yet more expansion of London’s urban sprawl supposedly means more affordable housing.When history proves the exact opposite of just a bigger,over populated and more expensive,urban sprawl than before.

I’ve got it, the advice to this woman from those who presumably quite like twiddling the wheel their belly is resting on, while not really concentrating on what is going on t’other side of the windscreen
is: move and get a proper job.

Not do a job you are good at and like doing, but leave whatever friends and family you have and move to the other end of the country, because when you get there you will if you are really lucky, find a job you actually hate, which pays less than you had before, but you will find some hovel for 1/4 of the rent so everything is tickety boo. It won’t matter that your kids get bullied at school because they can’t speak or understand u’t local Scouse, Geordie or whatever dialect.

Wow.

cav551:
I’ve got it, the advice to this woman from those who presumably quite like twiddling the wheel their belly is resting on, while not really concentrating on what is going on t’other side of the windscreen
is: move and get a proper job.

Not do a job you are good at and like doing, but leave whatever friends and family you have and move to the other end of the country, because when you get there you will if you are really lucky, find a job you actually hate, which pays less than you had before, but you will find some hovel for 1/4 of the rent so everything is tickety boo. It won’t matter that your kids get bullied at school because they can’t speak or understand u’t local Scouse, Geordie or whatever dialect.

Wow.

Ironically much of the problem is caused by people happily leaving other parts of the country,or even other countries and presumably their friends and family there,to move to London.Thereby helping to create the unsustainable population levels and resulting over demand that’s causing the high housing costs.

Having said that it’s doubtful that the job and single wage of ‘Yoga Teacher’ would even get close to enough to cover the mortgage or rent on anything better than a small high rise flat wherever it is in the country.

Although obviously in an ideal world housing benefit would be variable to reflect regional housing cost variations.

But whatever the answer,history proves that the BBC’s obvious ongoing crusade,to expand London’s urban sprawl and resulting crap over populated environment,even further out into the surrounding counties,ain’t it.Nor will it work in solving the problem of housing cost affordabilty in London,especially based on the single wage earner potential of the job of Yoga Teacher.

Personally my view is that I don’t mind working and paying my taxes to help people who need a lift up after hitting hard times. Might be me one day.

I do however mind paying for people to live in the most expensive area of the country. I work and can’t afford to live in London so don’t see why I should pay for others to do so.

I’m sure she is good at and enjoys yoga but again if you want me to help support you I expect you to do your best to help yourself, even if that means a job you don’t enjoy

I see stories like this and then I wonder how the ■■■■ a large majority of people are living in london. Used to deliver sofas around there and some of the people never seemed to have jobs or anything tbh. It’s a dump anyway.

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JaxDemon:
I see stories like this and then I wonder how the [zb] a large majority of people are living in london. Used to deliver sofas around there and some of the people never seemed to have jobs or anything tbh. It’s a dump anyway.

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They’re the ones in social housing. Social rent is capped at around £125 a week give or take depending on size of the property. I heard a guy on the radio who lived off of Sloane Street, and his rent (council) was £90 a week for a 2 bed flat, while his neighbours were paying almost £1k per week private

What sort of job allows you to pay a grand a week in rent ■■ Pimp perchance …

OVLOV JAY:

JaxDemon:
I see stories like this and then I wonder how the [zb] a large majority of people are living in london. Used to deliver sofas around there and some of the people never seemed to have jobs or anything tbh. It’s a dump anyway.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

They’re the ones in social housing. Social rent is capped at around £125 a week give or take depending on size of the property. I heard a guy on the radio who lived off of Sloane Street, and his rent (council) was £90 a week for a 2 bed flat, while his neighbours were paying almost £1k per week private

There can be numerous different scenarios.Such as those who’ve lived in and around the place since before the costs v incomes equation went so mental after the wage restraint policy took off.In which case their housing needs are often all now long ago covered and paid off.Often including the purchase of former rented housing.In which case taking on low wage employment or even long term unemployment or sickness won’t bother them relatively as much.You can then add those of us who couldn’t afford to move out of the parental home in that regard.

However marriage breakups and single parent families can obviously throw a spanner in even that situation.If the sale of even a paid off house has to be split between two seperated partners then they each both have to find an afford a place out of the single house sale proceeds.Let alone if it still has a mortgage outstanding on it which required two wage earners to pay it off.A similar situation obviously applies in the rented sector in which it still takes two wage earners to cover the average rent.

To which the BBC’s ( and Corbyn’s and May’s etc ) agenda is let’s cover the South East in loads of housing estates.Based on the silly premise that supply can be increased here,to the point of creating a house price crash,where a household earning £640 per month could then supposedly afford to buy or rent a house.What could possibly go wrong from no one with any sense wanting to live in the resulting urban zb hole.To the banks being left with a negative equity mountain of existing mortgages taken out at and based on the previous values.

Issue with social housing is wait 5 years and you can buy it and that’s what’s happened here. Lots of people played the system when it was easier to get a council house.

I can buy mine here in the Midlands for like 60k be a great investment then rent it out in 10 years time when the rules run out but tbh I’d rather buy somewhere else and give this back but when you see everyone else looking after number 1 it makes you wonder why should I bother not doing the same lol

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OVLOV JAY:
The problem isn’t how little she earns, it’s how extortionate the rents are in London. About time something was done to stop squeezing the working classes out

Well, I was kinda thinking it’s both really…

Joe Bloggs 1 to Joe Bloggs 2 :

“i’m really struggling to pay my rent at the moment,”

------JB2 to JB1:

------“sorry to hear that, how much do you earn if you don’t mind me asking?”

“£640 a month”

Anywhere in the UK people would think “i’m not surprised you are struggling”, which is I think one of Carryfast’s many excellent points. Now i’m not for a minute suggesting that this single mother of two children absolutely ought to be earning more money, I respect her for working at all as there are of course plenty of others in her situation who would be wholly dependent on the state.

i do not take any issue with Tracy Strassburg herself as I do not know anything like enough about her overall situation or what her actual thoughts are on her situation, I take issue with the BBC, precisely because we are given none of this info and also because I think Tracy Strassburg is such a rubbish example of someone struggling to pay their rent that it borders on parody.

In the original article, the first example (now mysteriously deleted) was of a woman earning £1500 per month struggling to live in Wokingham with rent and council tax of £1057 per month. This first woman has taken the first sensible step of earning what some at least would consider a reasonable wage and she has also taken the second sensible step of not living in london, so when I saw she was struggling to pay her rent she certainly had my sympathy. yes, she too could consider moving to a cheaper area, but what she saves in rent she might lose in income, whereas Tracy Strassburg could clearly give up her job altogether and still be better off in many parts of the country

It’s just dumb that someone who earns £640 a month and has a rent of £1400 a month is (now) the BBC’s main example of one of these half a million people referred to here:

According to the housing charity Shelter, there are now half a million people in the UK in the same situation: people who have jobs, but who still have to borrow money for the rent.

I mean what next? maybe someone called Tarquin struggling to pay £7000 per month for a flat in Knightsbridge on his £250 a month income as a professional gambler?

Juddian:
You heartless beast KTM , that poor woman works her fingers to the bone averaging 80 hour weeks with pick and shovel at the yoga face,

■■■■, didn’t realise that Juddian, starting to feel quite bad now

Carryfast:
Typical BBC propaganda agenda.Shocker average single wage earner can’t afford to house themselves let alone a family in London and the South East and Landlords aren’t housing charities and housing benefit isn’t an unlimited infinite resource when that should be the job of income protection insurance.Let alone for a single wage earner with the non job wage of a ‘Yoga teacher’.While anyone born and bred in the region knows that’s been the same for almost 40 years if not more…
…On that note the obvious answer in this case is how did she end up in the situation of being a mother of two children and a single wage earner.Let alone a single wage earner with a low paying non job like Yoga teacher and why then add to the problem of that by wanting to stay in the worst of all worlds of living in one of the crappiest and most expensive,if not the crappiest and most expensive,parts of the country.

Could not have put it better myself.

Carryfast:

cav551:
I’ve got it, the advice to this woman from those who presumably quite like twiddling the wheel their belly is resting on, while not really concentrating on what is going on t’other side of the windscreen
is: move and get a proper job.

Not do a job you are good at and like doing, but leave whatever friends and family you have and move to the other end of the country, because when you get there you will if you are really lucky, find a job you actually hate, which pays less than you had before, but you will find some hovel for 1/4 of the rent so everything is tickety boo. It won’t matter that your kids get bullied at school because they can’t speak or understand u’t local Scouse, Geordie or whatever dialect.

Wow.

Ironically much of the problem is caused by people happily leaving other parts of the country,or even other countries and presumably their friends and family there,to move to London.Thereby helping to create the unsustainable population levels and resulting over demand that’s causing the high housing costs.

Having said that it’s doubtful that the job and single wage of ‘Yoga Teacher’ would even get close to enough to cover the mortgage or rent on anything better than a small high rise flat wherever it is in the country…

I don’t know enough about this woman’s situation (or her thoughts on her situation) to offer advice, the fact that practically none of the complex issues around this subject are examined by the BBC in the article being one of the main reasons I consider it to be a rubbish article. I am not actually saying that she herself should move out of London (she could for example perhaps pool her resources with her mother who is also in London) what I am saying is that someone earning £640 a month struggling to pay a London rent is not newsworthy as it would be of no ■■■■■■■ surprise to anyone !!!

Not sure what the amount of attention paid to the road ahead while driving has got to do with any of this - but if you insist - perhaps the advice given to this woman from those who consider looking through the windscreen at all to be very much of secondary importance to the much more essential browsing of the guardian website and Jeremy Corbyn’s twitter feed would be to lobby her MP to pressure the government to increase income tax by 5 pence across the board, so that UK taxpayers who have themselves either left London, other parts of the UK or indeed other countries for economic reasons (i.e. they couldn’t afford to live there anymore) can subsidise anyone who lives within 30 miles of Islington to do whatever job they like (e.g. basket weaving, upcycling tea crates into bedroom furniture) for however many hours a week they feel like for whatever they can get a month for it…

If she’s only earning that much per month as a yoga teacher in London then she’s not very good at it.

m1cks:
If she’s only earning that much per month as a yoga teacher in London then she’s not very good at it.

Or she is fat [emoji3]

KTMrider:
I don’t know enough about this woman’s situation (or her thoughts on her situation) to offer advice, the fact that practically none of the complex issues around this subject are examined by the BBC in the article being one of the main reasons I consider it to be a rubbish article.

It goes long the lines of the BBC pushing an establishment agenda that gives the developers carte blanche to wipe out what remains of much of London’s surrounding counties.On the basis of the lie that only by doing so can we provide ‘affordable’ housing for people as in this example.With May and all the rest trying to outdo each other as to the level of incomes that they are all supposedly catering for in this housing free for all.That’s actually nothing more than a land grab for the developers which will solve nothing.While just creating an even bigger problem and cycle of over population and resulting urban deprivation and the probable flight of those counties’ existing residents and communities if they’ve got any sense.Just like all the previous examples of the expansion of London’s urban sprawl that have gone before.

Sloppy reporting from the BBC because she isn’t on £640 per month, she will qualify for child tax credits, working tax credits, housing benefit and child benefit plus why is she not pursuing the father for child maintenance? There are plenty of examples of people struggling around the country but this is not one of them, will probably turn out that she is the yoga teacher of the journalist who wrote the article