In his next (if successful) stint as PM, Cameron wants to take away housing benefit from under 25s. He has very kindly suggested that housing benefit would not be withdrawn from vulnerable groups such as those with a destructive home life or leaving foster care but as yet, none of this has been quantified.
This speaks to me on a personal level. At 17, my mother kicked me out. I was a sixth form student, and desperately unhappy where I was - the atmosphere didn't suit me at all, and for some time, I had been ill with mental health problems that by and large, I had kept from my family (because by that point, having had a 'difficult' childhood, I already knew well what my mother thought of illness - mental illness in particular). So we had a conversation where I told her I was unhappy at 6th form, and wanted to restart my A levels at college the next year (this was in April). Her rejoinder was 'if you leave 6th form, you leave this house'. And there it was. Going to school every day was making me more and more ill, and making hiding my problems more and more difficult. I doubt that this would be considered 'destructive' under the potential new rules. Little that Cameron does around mental health is about giving consideration to people with disabilities and health problems.
I knew somewhere that had a room going in a shared flat, and upon hearing this, my mother told me to pack. All my stuff was at the new flat the next morning. (I have to say, my mother and I now have a great relationship that we have worked hard to heal. I love her dearly)
This was 17 years ago. I was 17. My rent was £40/week, for a room in which I could touch two opposite walls at once. The rent was 'bills inclusive' which meant that housing benefit (which I received because my mother had duly signed the forms to say she kicked me out) paid £32/week. I had to find £8 a week.
My only real option for income at that point was a YTS (youth training) scheme - a day scheme where you sign up to various types of thing (nursing, office-work, mechanics) and turn up every dayish, and as a result, you get paid your YTS money. In those days, as a 17 year old, it was deemed that I was entitled to £28/week. £8 of that a week went on my rent, so a net income of £20 a week. Out of that I had to spend £7 a week on a bus pass in order to get to the placement. Living on £13 a week was not fun, even 17 years ago. It's not something I would even attempt, had I any option. I spent most of the time up til I was 25 with significant mental health problems, eventually moving onto disability benefit, which did at least pay me significantly more money. Enough to eat on. As a 17yr old, once a week, I would buy a loaf of bread some butter and jam, and I would make the loaf up in to jam sandwiches, and freeze it in the original loaf bag. Every day I'd get out one jam sandwich for lunch. Dinners often consisted of cheap mince and pasta.
An inflation calculator suggests that my £28 a week would be £45 at today's rates. Today's 17 year olds get £51 a week. a 7day bus pass in the same town is now £15.
The cheapest room I can find to rent (in the same town I was in) is £250 a month (inflation-wise it's directly comparable). Housing benefit suggests that it will cover £230 a month maximum, leaving a 17 year old with at least £5 a week gone from their pocket before they start. If they need to travel in or out of town by bus on a regular basis, that's another £15 a week, plus any bills that they need to pay, BEFORE eating. Potentially, today's 17 year old has about 20-30 pounds a week to subsist on. In inflation terms, today, £20 is about what I was existing on.
I had no money to buy clothes, even charity-shop clothes were often too expensive - a winter coat was a concept that didn't even exist to me - that would be a week's food. I would rather be cold and put extra layers on, than go without the meagre amount of food I was eating.
This is not something that's a fun existence to people. people don't DO this if they have a choice, by and large. David Cameron should try, just for a week, living in the types of housing that housing benefit will pay for, and trying to live in any way well, on the money that is allotted to people under 25* on job-seekers. I think he would find it impossible.
*I have to say, that given the recent changes, it's not much easier for someone over 25 and under 35. You are now reduced to living in shared accommodation until you are 35. People who are under 35 and living in a self-contained flat are 'protected' for a short while and then your housing benefit drops (about 40%) to the shared room rate. At which point most people will have to move because in the example above, shared room rate was 230, single room was 290. Most people on £204 a month cannot magically 'find' an extra £60 a month to pay the rent.
