Good news: the council found a flat for you. Bad news: disabled people such as yourself can’t get to it

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Haven’t decided if this one is council pratfall or farce:

We return to N, the homeless, disabled, single mother of 2 and domestic violence alumna whose hopes of liberation from her one-room homelessness hostel hovel I’ve been writing about for nearly a year.

Given that absolutely nothing ever changes for N, I do think I’ll be writing about her situation for whatever timeframe constitutes forever these days – until we’re all taken out by the next cantering microbe, or the sun brings the incineration timetable forward, etc. Can’t say I want the world to end as a climate-blasted fireball, but on the bright side, that would break a few stalemates.

N has been stuck in that one shabby hostel room – beds, “living” area, personal belongings and the family all crammed in it – for 3 whole years. Councils leave homeless families in these dreadful places for aeons now. I think the basic government idea is that at some point during a family’s incarceration in them, one-room bedsit/cage hostel arrangements like N’s will evolve from emergency accommodation to coffin, thus ending a massively-underfunded council’s duty to that particular family and freeing up space for the next doomed group. You do hear people in these places say they’d prefer death to another day in their hutch.

Buggy wheels against a lift wall

Image: double buggy absolutely not going to fit in the lift

Unfortunately, N has longer to go in hers. She’s just had another good news-bad news week on the liberation front.

The good news was that her council said it had a flat for her to move into. The bad news was that she couldn’t get to it. It wasn’t on the ground floor and the lift was too narrow for her buggy, or her walking aid. She took the pictures that I’ve posted in this article.

N can’t walk without the buggy to lean on, or her walking aid.

A friend went upstairs and took pictures of the corridor-balcony outside the flat (see video). This balcony was very narrow indeed. There was no room for the buggy or walking aid there.

Councils are meant to check places out before offering them to homeless people, but as housing officers have told me, we’re long past the golden age when councils had staff, time and money for handy initiatives for homeless and/or homeless disabled people. The curtain has drawn on those slightly more favourable eras. Another few years and there’ll be nobody around who actually remembers them.

So – back to the hostel N goes, for another stint of winter captivity and watching her own mental health tank, etc. Such is housing in our glorious modern world. Not too many at the renting end are winning. Even people who aren’t homeless can’t find places to rent unless they hand all their money to a letting agent for superior position in the stampede.

Meanwhile – adequate government funding for councils for housing is a dream you can get tired of trying to have. Jeremy Hunt gears up for Austerity 2 and you find yourself struggling to feel it. More and more people will be asking councils for housing help as the renting and cost of living crises crack on. You kind of hope that people don’t know what awaits.

 

41 thoughts on “Good news: the council found a flat for you. Bad news: disabled people such as yourself can’t get to it”

  1. Well yeah, it’s tempting to immediately accuse the Council(s) of incompetence and/or beaurocracy etc. but it does boil down to a decade of Tory Austerity policies, spending cuts and massive underfunding that totally undermine the Council’s ability to adequately function. The Tories don’t care because they are wealthy Sociopaths and none of it affects them. And the people it does affect are not likely to ever vote Conservative, so fuck ’em.

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  3. The UK is a 3rd world country which is invisible to the ones in power that generate ££ Billions making it into more of a 4th world country. The new world order. Lives are seen as cash cows to be branded for their usage until they are worthless to the state. Culling started at the DWP & because it was so successful it have been widened to every other Government Department. Morals don’t even come into it. Still the people at the bottom are treated worse than animals. Even saying suicide generates more money for the state Suicide PLC CEO. Now you want to be carers just to earn money out of the word suicide tory policy UK Bills Of Rights, Brexit, failed dictatorship hanging on to power by what ever means. The winners & losers, the strong shall survive & the weal shall perish. Levelling up the playing field is not in their interest because they will weaken at Human Rights & Equality for all. State Sponsored Pre Meditated Murder starts with Welfare Reform & the DWP. Now Tory lawyers get working at £3,000 an hour because your gonna need more that one lawyer. The lawyers don’t mind, they are get paid from tax payers money. Oh yeh, witch hunting because the disabled caused the 2008 Banking Crash scrounging off the state. So you should not give disabled people that more power to do it again lawyers.

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    • But it’s supposed to be either the 5th or 6th (?) richest country in the world. Those at the top 1% get the lion’s share.

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  4. Human Rights is not a political issue. Human Rights is a Human Rights issue. Tories say i’m on a rant but the scapegoat knows best.

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  5. Leaky Sue the Home Secretary gone by Friday 4th Nov 2022. She has beaten her own world record for shortest time in office as Home Secretary. Leaky Sue has been banned from using Emails for the safety of everyone.

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  6. Those creatures in power are telling us to prepare for a rough time.

    They have no awareness that the ‘rough time’ has been ongoing since these New Age Nazi’s (socialist?, yeah right), -came to power.
    But they DO have that awareness don’t they? They know full well who will suffer with raised taxes, and service cuts. They know. Austerity 1 Austerity 2? Bullshit. Austerity as a principle is a calculated state of being. Austerity because it only affects the poor and vulnerable. HOW have so many working class (for want of a better phrase) people embraced these bucking fastards?

    As for Councils, I have no sympathy. For decades they have squandered money; not least on ‘consultants’ who advise/d them how to do the job we pay them to do.
    If I ran MY budget like them, I would cry poor too.

    The fallout of Government and Council incompetence is on those who have been stripped of ANY bloody budget!The council is bloody culpable for N’s situation. Lack of funds have little to do with using simple common bloody sense. They have a file on her; they know about the disability; the youngster etc. Blind bloody Freddie should have worked out that that flat would not be suitable. But hey, let’s go through the motions/we’ve done our job/we tried to house her/and the ungrateful bitch turned it down.

    FUCK THEM.

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  7. I ‘m A Celebrity Politician Get Me Out Of The Cabinet Here !!
    The Tories new game show. Liz Truss pub quiz team was in the cabinet, so their looking for more things to do as MP’s on holiday with non stop free time. All the Tory voters getting pissed of because they voted Tory & Brexit. Jolly good show chaps away. Larry the Cat is going to have Rishi’s dog that just moved into no. 10.

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    • Alright for some….

      “The basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £84,144, as of April 2022. ”

      “Members of the House of Lords are not salaried. They can opt to receive a £323 per day attendance allowance, plus travel expenses and subsidised restaurant facilities. Peers may also choose to receive a reduced attendance allowance of £162 per day instead.”

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaries_of_members_of_the_United_Kingdom_Parliament

      Single persons JSA is £77 per week, unless Sanctioned.

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      • I suspect that piece of shit knows his career is over.
        Wait on………..it didn’t harm Dorries….

        This crap should be banned for these greedy scumbag MP’s.

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      • Matt Pratt is getting £350,000 to go on & promoted his book & delexica. He should give that to the delexica charity. Perhaps Matty will get Covid & give it all to the other’s playing in the jungle so it get cancelled like infecting care homes with Matt steering the Covid ship.

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    • Just the disabled benefits cut !! Equality & Human Rights Issue. Also the Tories & DWP will lose another appeal court case meanwhile they are criminals. The Tory policy is a criminal matter not a political matter that has become criminal.

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    • I attended a job interview this morning arranged by Reed (aka Better Working Futures aka the Work and Health Programme) and one of the others who’d been sent was a man a couple of years older than myself, at least 64 I would think, white hair and hardly able to walk due to Arthritis in both knees. Poor old sod should be on the sick or Retired but he’s on UC and ‘fit for work.’.

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  9. “UN poverty envoy tells Britain this is ‘worst time’ for more austerity
    Exclusive: Olivier de Schutter says cuts could violate human rights laws, calling instead for higher taxes on rich”

    “The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that unleashing a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger and malnutrition”

    https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/02/un-poverty-envoy-tells-britain-this-is-worst-time-for-more-austerity

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    • The Tories don’t care breaking UN Laws, Human Rights & Equality laws, the Tories own laws. What you gonna do about it, is the Tory answer Nothing !! We are Tory criminals & we are proud of it. We are untouchable & we get away with Pre Meditated State Sponsored Murder at the DWP. We [the Tories] just love being criminals to the disabled because they can’t do nothing to us, we are the Tory dictators. You can’t say that, we are in a failed dictatorship.

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  10. I’ve stopped using the heating in my flat, such that it is, because I can’t afford the electricity. The landlady having ignored the ancient meter situation for years and not even being bothered enough to empty it without being reminded, has now suddenly taken an interest due to the soaring costs. She’s been taking readings for the first time ever and has downloaded an App that converts kilowatt hours into cash figures, and subsequently as deduced that I have used £300 worth of electricity between July, August, September, ie. Summer when I had no heating on, but had only paid for £90 worth. I find it difficult to believe that I could have used so much during warm summer months, just me in a one bedroom flat. Anyway, from now on she’s going to be taking readings and working out the “correct” amount to charge me, and hopes to have the ancient coin meter recalibrated, which I doubt is possible or legal. So in the meantime I’ve stopped using the heating, instead wrapping myself in a blanket of an evening. Not looking forward to Winter!

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    • Trev, I thought you used a coin meter, pay as you go. So then it is not your problem. Sounds like the rate is for the higher rate introduced in October which will not effect the price before that.

      Hot water bottle for me !!

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      • Yes Steppin it IS an old coin meter but the landlady is working it out against the bills she’s getting and there’s a big shortfall because the coin meters are inaccurate and the price of electricity has risen so much. It’s not my fault though but she is now using an app to work out the true amount owing instead if just the coin meter. It’s a right balls up to be honest, never heard anything like it. Years of landlord negligence and ineptitude are to blame.

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          • Trev – sorry to hear about your continued woes, and the landlady situation re: your electricity use sounds fishy indeed. I fail to see how on earth you could have used around £25 worth of electricity a week over the summer months. I Have all the normal uses of electricity and also run at least two computers 24/7/365 and my usage is never more than about £10 a week, even taking into consideration the increased cost of electricity.

            If you weren’t aware, there is a limit to what landlords can charge you for reselling gas and/or electricity, and they should not be making a profit. If you coin meter is inaccurate in terms of what you’re being charged, then it’s odds on that it’s also inaccurate in terms of how much you’re using. Citizens Advice has some useful info: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-supply/what-your-landlord-can-charge-for-energy/

            Also, you should be receiving the Energy Bills Support Scheme, but as your electricity supply will be in your landlord’s name, that might have an effect, but the info is here:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/getting-the-energy-bills-support-scheme-discount
            I don’t know whether it depends on who your supplier is the way you receive the discount, but my supplier OVO have split it up into monthly payments from October to, I think March of variously £66 and £67 a month, which will comfortably cover all my electricity costs every month.

            I hope the above helps.

          • Thanks Padi, I will look into it. My woes continue however, as if life isn’t quite shit enough my cat got run over today and kicked the bucket. Life really is a large bag of shite. Stop the planet, I want to get off.

          • Ah! That’s very interesting, thnx for that. It sounds like the Gov. are going to pay such affected people (as myself) the £400 energy discount by some other means, though what exactly we don’t yet know. A direct cash payment would be the obvious solution but then they would first have to somehow identify all those who qualify, and by some secure means to prevent abuse/fraud. Not easy. I’ll be interested to know what they propose. Time will tell. As for the cat, yeah it’s a real downer. It never rains but it pours.

  11. I’m so bloody sorry, Trev. I’m waiting for my LL to raise my rent, which will annoy me a tad, because he lives next door, and has just traded in his Jag for a newer model.
    To his credit, he is a blue collar working stiff, working about 10 hours a day, but loves his toys!

    I read your link to ‘Mystic Meg’. I hope they bloody crash with the rest of us, but given their Teflon nature, WE will pay dearly for THEIR ‘mistakes’.

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    • The weird thing is my rent has remained the same since I took the tenancy nearly 8 years ago and I’ve heard of other tenants being in my landlords other properties for even longer with no increase in rent. The landlady has only recently took an interest in the energy bills and meters after years of slapdash mismanagement and general not giving a fuck.

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      • Some good advice for you there,

        Trev. It has become farly common knowledge now, but have you applied for Social Broadband tariff?
        It cut my broadband package by 50%. Not without a stouch btw. They tried to combine the SB tariff with a full fibre set up; apparently to be compulsory in 2025…”unless delayed”. I was to have an engineer come and alter this and that and have the you beaut ‘digital voice’, which a highly experienced tech’ guy warned me against (until they can iron out its problems-they suspended it back in March). I turned the SB down.
        After further thought, I got in touch with their Board. I now have my SB tariff and some new benefits, and keep my old fashioned terrible, terrible wired system.

        Until they force that ‘out of my cold dead hands’. (Thank-you Charlton Heston for you wise words-except I’m not referring to guns).

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    • That’s ridiculous. I’ve only recently been forced to live without any heating to save money on electricity although the heating that’s available in my flat is inadequate in the first place, but there’s been a problem with mold in the bedroom for years not because of anything I’ve done but due to lack of external maintenance to guttering, drain pipes, and pointing. I’ve had one internal wall replastered and repainted but have now noticed fungus growing out of the external stone wall outside my bedroom behind the still leaky fall pipe.

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