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Letters
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
10 December 2007
Our website has been buzzing all week with comments on a story printed in the ‘News’ three weeks ago about a Bermondsey family told by the council that they were not technically overcrowded despite having three kids in one bedroom.
Here, Jacqueline Elliott, the subject of the story, has her say on those comments...
I had a phone call from a friend that came from Bermondsey, who goes on your web page to see what is going on.
I never new people could comment on your stories.
I would like to point out more on myself and have this printed in the paper so these people can be put right.
One of the comments that was printed was that ‘I am sure that she get plenty of money off the government’. My answer to this is that I go to work - I am an engineer and I look after my mother who had major surgery to her face and has to be fed by a peg.
No I don’t get any type of hand out. I look after my family with their dad Darren.
Their father Darren plays a big part in Charlotte, Danny and Chelsea’s lives.
And for someone to say I could not afford to bring my children in to this world is a load of bull.
I pay taxes, full rent, full poll taxes and all the rest, and come from a family that has their own business.
I have not left the place that I was born (Bermondsey). Does this make us all scroungers because we live in a flat?
Also the point that the council make that I am not over crowded.
Why am I holding a letter that was written by Caroline Cobb on 26th April 06, Principal housing Registration Officer, saying, “You have been placed in a band 3 priority band as from the 19th September 2005, this is the date when the new allocation scheme was introduced and applicants who had points for overcrowding were automatically given this priority”?
In one way the comment on your web pages are correct as Darren was not mentioned and I would like this to go in the paper.
So these people can read this letter and get it correct.
Miss Jacqueline Elliott, by email
Read the article and comments here...
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Comments (4)
1. At 10:14 AM on 12 Dec 2007, Mrs C Thompson wrote:
I can't believe some of the comments passed on this story, had the people who responded so negatively had a higher IQ than 2 they would have been able to read it properly and gotten their facts straight! I felt so angry on Ms Elliot's behalf, lets all paint families who live on council estates as one parent families with no sign of their baby daddies who sponge off the state and have more children than they can afford! Poor woman didn't stand a chance! and I am really glad she responded and put everyone in the picture. And no I don't live on a council estate (though I have done and am not ashamed to admit it!) and no I don't have loads of kids (and even if I did whose business is it if I work and keep them!)and yes I do work full time incase anyone wanted to dig me too!
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2. At 12:10 PM on 16 Apr 2008, Ink wrote:
I don't think the point is so much that ALL council estate families are scroungers (though a significant percentage no doubt are). Rather the point is the deeply embedded view in the UK that Government should provide housing to everyone. Particularly in Southwark, the (by nature inefficient) Government is landlord to far too many people - people who, over generations, believe they are entitled to housing for life (and their kids, and their kids, and so on). The big issue here is 'what is this person doing to get out of Government subsidised housing' (i.e. housing owned by all of us, as taxpayers)? I'm happy to provide less cramped quarters if I see a sensible timeline for the family to move into their own acommodation as soon as possible.
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3. At 07:15 PM on 09 Sep 2008, Superstar2167 wrote:
It is disgusting to see so many rude narrow minded people who on seeing a story like this jump to the wrong conclusions. Sadly she is not alone in her situation, but I hope she is rehoused soon.
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4. At 02:05 PM on 27 May 2009, Maria B wrote:
Political opinion aside, there is a difference between statutory overcrowding and bedroom standard overcrowding. This is what has lead to Ms. Elliott's confusion over the band allocation. Statutorily overcrowded means the government has a legal duty towards you (living rooms and even kitchen areas can be counted as rooms for sleeping so few people fulfill this criteria)and applicants are awarded Band 1.
Bedroom overcrowding is the position this family find themselves in and why they received that information in the letter from Ms Cobbs. Bedroom overcrowding is given Band 3.
There are literally hundreds of families across the borough meeting the bedroom overcrowding criteria and so they awarded Band 3 in order to enable the timely rehousing of those with more urgent needs for example multiple needs (e.g. medical need plus bedroom overcrowding - Band 2) or decant tenants whose homes are being demolished.
The waiting time on Band 3 for a three bedroom flat is around 2 years. Long waiting times are an unfortunate effect of the chronic shortage of housing but in terms of priorities, I think the council have the allocations policy about right.
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