Today Ed Miliband will suggest that social housing be allocated on the applicants contribution to society – whether they are a good neighbour, take care of their property and work (source).
But who will determine whether they are a good neighbour or not – or what factors?
What about those who cannot work? The disabled? Will their carer’s be classed as “not working” Will people on Job Seekers Allowance be treated the same as someone living on Disability Living Allowance for example?
Will this apply to ALL houses – or will there be a differentiation for emergency stock?
Is this a fair system? Or are those out of work in greater need, already a vulnerable group in society?
Pinkoddy's Blog 
Good post. Why people have such a problem with who social housing should be for I have no idea. It’s SOCIAL housing! It should be allocated by need, surely that’s a given? Perhaps if he’d offered viable plans for increasing housing stock instead of stirring up yet more biased knee-jerk anti-benefits reactions (this from labour too!) we might get somewhere. Thanks for raising the issue.
I think you make good points. However, I do think they are *trying* to differentiate between those in social housing need and those whose needs are much more than that. An example given in a conversation I had on this matter is drug addicts who then go on to “trash” their homes – meaning that more has to be kept being spent on the houses themselves. Moves need to be done to tackle the addiction – not be making it that they have less rights.
I have been diagnosted with rheumatoid arthritis several weeks ago. I haven’t been able to work full time for several months now, and my income has seen better days. I’m not sure how long my savings will last me, the bills are coming in every month. I can only hope to turn out to be approved for the disability tax credit.
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Such a thorny issue when there is a shortage of social housing. How do you stratify ‘need’ when obviously everyone ‘needs’ somewhere to live. I guess this might be less about the housing itself and more about incentivising ‘good’ behaviour from people which is another issue entirely…
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