Current Situation
Currently in Northern Ireland, if you are single and within the criteria to receive Housing Benefit you are entitled to enough to cover a 1 bedroom flat. Not a lot of space, but it’s enough to live in obviously. It’s the same for couples living together.
Changes
A friend of mine today received the following letter in the post and highlighted the area’s of interest to share with the rest of us.
The highlight area points out that now if you are above 25 and under 35 you will no longer be entitled to live in a one bedroom flat. You will now be required to move in and share a house.
This raises the question of what happens in the event that you should not be able to find people you know to move in with. Would you be required to move in with people you do not know, no matter the living conditions?
Ups and Downs
There is no doubt some people won’t mind this experience, a lot of people, myself excluded, choose to live in shared accommodation throughout University life, firstly with random strangers, before moving into houses with friends they make during their first year.
However, if you take a good look at the Rental Market, in my area at least, there is very little available to rent, and I personally have not seen anything with shared accommodation, apart from that reserved for students. Does that mean that people in their late twenties and early thirties will be forced to share with 18 year olds? Or will they be allowed to stay in their one bedroom flats.
If the former is the case I pity those that will be forced to share with strangers, I know of few people that didn’t have issues at University sharing with strangers. If it’s the latter does the changes to the Benefit seem redundant?
