Is it just me or is this pretty insensitive practice?

[Kuros]

I agree it's pretty insensitive, but I guess it's also the way things go these days.

I wouldn't expect a normal landlord to give any leeway, given he still needs to make money, so the same goes for the money-strapped councils.

As has been said, given the waiting lists for council houses are so large, it makes sense for councils to try and get things moved along quickly.

 

[Tefal]

That's why I referred to the tax as 'tax'.

However, I have a sneaky suspicion that you lose a lot more than a 'tenner' after your other benefits also get cut when your offspring dies. Child benefit alone is more than that, disregarding the other parental benefits you would expect a person already in receipt of housing benefit to get.

In any case, I wasn't making the statement as a point to argue against the 'bedroom tax'. I was merely pointing out how sad it is that the sort of grieving and preservation of memory that many need to go through is not available to the poorest.

well the child is dead, so you'd assume the expenses for that child benefit also dissapear and so losing child tax credit isn't an issue...you know cause you don't have a child.

I was merely pointing out how sad it is that the sort of grieving and preservation of memory that many need to go through is not available to the poorest.

i dunno it sounds grossly unhealthy, and not something that happens outside of hollywood movies.

 

[cheesyboy]

well the child is dead, so you'd assume the expenses for that child benefit also dissapear and so losing child tax credit isn't an issue...you know cause you don't have a child.




i dunno it sounds grossly unhealthy, and not something that happens outside of hollywood movies.

It's fine to go through life concentrating on the cold hard 'facts'. You have little empathy for the situations I'm illustrating, and that's ok too - I'm sure you have your own worries or issues which make problems like parental loss seem distant.

I've set out my feelings on it as best I can. I've not suggested changes or made criticisms of the setup, it's just that I think it's a sad situation, and one (in the case of council rent being a struggle to cover for people who have just lost a loved one) I've seen at close hand.

As for the grieving process and memorialising a lost loved one - it's a very common and healthy part of grieving, to a point. The author Michael Rosen described it better than I could when talking about his son who died, in the context of the bedroom tax. It's worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/14/bedroom-tax-death-leveller