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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Tyler Robinson is Not ?Right-Wing?: Exposing the Left-Wing Hoax About Charlie Kirk?s Suspected Kille... Tue Sep 16, 2025 07:00 | Laurie Wastell
Despite a bullet reading "hey fascist! Catch", Left-wing media claim Tyler Robinson is "Right-wing". Anything to avoid facing the fact that political violence is a growing problem on the American Left, says Laurie Wastell.
The post Tyler Robinson is Not “Right-Wing”: Exposing the Left-Wing Hoax About Charlie Kirk’s Suspected Killer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Sep 16, 2025 01:52 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Ed Miliband Costs Britain One Billion Barrels of North Sea Oil Mon Sep 15, 2025 19:00 | Will Jones
Ed Miliband will cost Britain one billion barrels of North Sea oil and gas, official data confirm, as a sharp drop in output up to 2050 emerges ? a result of Labour imposing 78% taxes and a?ban on new drilling.
The post Ed Miliband Costs Britain One Billion Barrels of North Sea Oil appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link What I Saw at the Unite the Kingdom Rally Mon Sep 15, 2025 17:00 | Philip Patrick
Philip Patrick was at the Unite the Kingdom rally on Saturday and says it was no Tommy-fest. The themes were love of country, a rejection of mainstream politics and media and a resolute defence of free speech.
The post What I Saw at the Unite the Kingdom Rally appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate Change Committee Doubles Down on Unrealistic Net Zero Costs Under New Chair Mon Sep 15, 2025 15:16 | David Turver
The Government's Climate Change Committee is doubling down on fantasy Net Zero cost models, turning a blind eye to sky-high offshore wind and solar prices, warns David Turver.
The post Climate Change Committee Doubles Down on Unrealistic Net Zero Costs Under New Chair appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Rent Allowance-More Stealth Cuts?

category national | public consultation / irish social forum | other press author Sunday September 20, 2009 11:08author by Greg T - None (Independent left) Report this post to the editors

Highlighting recent changes to the rent supplement scheme as well as other disturbing developments.

As if June's cut wasn't enough, ( see: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94053 ) waiting period of up to several months for rent allowance assessment to be completed are going to result from recent changes to the rent supplement scheme . This development may make things next to impossible for any newly unemployed without significant savings, in the meantime more and more people are undoubtedly going to become homeless.
http://www.corkindependent.com/local-news/local-news/co...nces/
(It's nice to see a Labour TD taking action on this issue). As if that isn't worrying enough, just been told by someone I know (coincidentally also in County Cork), that new Rent Allowance claims are not being processed at all in her area. This person was basically informed (informally) that her claim was a waste of time and that due to staff shortages new applications will not get seen to. Sounds suspiciously like yet another stealth on the sly cut. Meanwhile the NAMA plans to bailout the rich continue, gombeen politics as usual. If anyone else knows similar stories they need to be highlighted immediately. Affected people need to kick up a fuss or they will be (conveniently) forgotten.

Related Link: http://www.corkindependent.com/local-news/local-news/concern-about-rent-allowances/
author by shoegirlpublication date Mon Sep 21, 2009 17:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Isn't the whole point of rent allowance so that people in EXISTING rented accomodation are subsidised, not so that people who are currently receiving a social welfare payment can choose to change their existing accomodation at a whim?

That said, the changes are harsh on anybody who otherwise would be facing the scenario of having no roof under their head - for example if their landlord is selling up or if the family home is no longer a safe place for them.

Forcing low income households into the market sector should never have been a solution in the first place - accomodation should have been made available via social housing, not via giving guaranteed profits to market landlords at obscene overpriced rates and pushing up demand artificially for private rented property through engineering artificial shortages in social housing through non-provision. (But then spending billions on private sector rents instead? Doesn't even make financial sense if you take into account that the cost of housing rent subsidised households over the last 10 years has probably already far exceeded the cost of actually providing them with permanent council or housing association homes?)

The current policy of locking in this form of "non-provision" by long term leasing from private landlords is doing nothing more than subsidizing the worst kind of profiteering landlords.

 
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