Three million working families in England are one pay cheque away from not being able to pay their rent or mortgage, according to research released today by homelessness charity Shelter.
Shelter and market research firm YouGov reached this conclusion after interviewing 8,381 adults in the UK and found 37% said they would be able to cover their housing costs for more than a month if they or their partner lost their job.
They calculated the 3m figure using information from the 2011 Census published by the Office for National Statistics, which showed there were 8,424,182 working families in England.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “These figures are a stark reminder that sky-high housing costs are leaving millions of working families stretched to breaking point, and barely scraping by from one pay cheque to the next.”
The charity also highlighted the government’s family resources survey 2014/15 indicating 16.5m (43%) working age adults have no savings.
The Shelter/ YouGov report also found 23% of working families said they would be unable to pay their housing costs at all if they or their partner lost their job.
Almost half (48%) of working families responded to the survey saying housing places the greatest financial strain on their budget.
Robb added: “In these uncertain times, the new government has a real chance to show working families they’re on their side, by protecting and improving our welfare safety net.
“It’s vital that if life does takes a turn for the worse, there’s enough support available for families so that they don’t go hurtling towards homelessness.”
Reminds of when a client couldn’t get a mortgage even with £250,000 in the bank, on the basis that they could draw it all out buy a yacht and then would have nothing with which to pay the mortgage.
Meanwhile the lenders seem cool with the fact borrowers could lose their jobs tomorrow which means they could neither pay the mortgage nor buy a yacht.
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Lenders today could repossess if the owner doesn’t pay up.
A landlord would also evict.
What happens to home owners when the interest rate goes up…..?
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I have sympathy for tenants, if they can’t pay next months rent without next months wage then they will be unlikely to be able to find the money to pay the fees if for example the landlord decides to sell up and they need to rent elsewhere.
I do think that the up front fees should somehow be absorbed either into the monthly rent or in some other way.
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‘Almost half (48%) of working families responded to the survey saying housing places the greatest financial strain on their budget.’
So – the ‘No 5h!t, Sherlock 2016 Award’ goes to Shelter for this corking example.
Show me a time when it wasn’t for the majority.
‘The Shelter/ YouGov report also found 23% of working families said they would be unable to pay their housing costs at all if they or their partner lost their job.’
I wonder what ‘costs’ they could still pay? Mobile contracts? Sky subscription? Fags and ‘entertainment’?
It’s funny, innit – what comes up on every Payment Plan as “essentials” before offers of paying back thousands to businesses at a quid or so a month, stretched over decades…
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Funny, that – I don’t ‘like’ the content of my comment either… but that doesn’t make it any less accurate or relevant.
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