Home Home, Law & Money
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Fighting the SS!

2»

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i can't be in halls for 3 years, its a london uni, i doubt many give you that option. And even when i do get a job i doubt i'll be able to afford a flat on my own, not in london anyway, and i don't really have connections to anywhere else now.


    Have a word with the uni, they may have students flats where u would be able to stay for the 3 years, worth speaking to,

    and most students dont get there own place at the end, its all about house/flat shares.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As a general rule of thumb people don't stay in halls for the duration of the course, but plenty do, even in London, for one reason or another. Extenuating circumstances/special needs is the usual one and you'd probably fall right into that category. I will look into it for you...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I realise than TT may not ever see this post but I really feel I need to make it for my own sanity. I feel really anger, upset and even disgusted at some of the posts I have read in this thread and the attitudes shown. It took me a few days to calm down enough to be able to attempt to make a response that was more than just a load of swearing.

    The attitude of ‘sort yourself out’ is well, just so harsh as the housing laws are there in the first place to protect care leavers. I’m sure that TT has considered halls of residence, I lived in halls myself when I was at university for my first year and final year and personally found that they suited me well at the time. However I couldn’t even consider living in that sort of situation now with my mental health the way it is and I think we all need to recognise that there really are health problems that would make this option unsuitable.

    But beyond that is the practical arrangements. Fair enough, many people don’t get ‘financial’ support from their parents but how many eighteen year old undergraduates who are off to university for the first time seriously don’t have any form of support from their parents? Who drops them off at the halls, helps them lug all their stuff at the end of every academic year or stores it over the summer? Even if you don’t physically live with your parents over the holidays (I didn’t), the chances are that your parents are somehow involved or at least most undergraduates have that option. I think many of us underestimate the support our parents give us when we are at university, especially the non-financial support. The law on this one already recognises the differences for care leavers and have been put in place not to give care leavers an unfair advantage but in an attempt to make it more of a level playing field. Obviously it really still isn’t the case that it is a level playing field but this law is an attempt to go some of the way to make it so.

    Even those of us who don’t live with parents ever usually have at least the knowledge at the back of their mind that if their housing situation went tits up they would have someone who could support them in an emergency, even if not living with parents how many of us couldn’t at least spend a night on their parents sofa in an emergency? I have very difficult relationships with my parents and a very complicated family dynamic but when my housing has all gone wrong in the past I have spent the odd night at my Dad’s house until I got things sorted. How many people graduating for the first time actually have housing sorted from day one of finishing their course? I know I didn’t. Infact, I knew that I couldn’t get a job as I was ill and had to do the housing benefit thing. From starting the claim to actually getting some money was about eight weeks, I spent a bit of time staying at my Dad’s house and then borrowed the deposit for my room from him and borrowed money to pay my rent until my claim was settled and I received the back payment and fortnightly amounts started coming in. Despite approaching the situation as early as I could the way the system works is complicated and there are so many loopholes to fall through. You can’t get signed off until the end of your course (and that means the official ‘end date’ which for me was ages after my last day of me actually having to do anything there) and then from then it takes months to get housing benefit although they do back pay it. As a care leaver what on earth would one do in this situation? I’m not suggesting that TT isn’t going to fall into a great job the day she leaves university but I think the reality of the situation is that there are situations in life when it just isn’t that straight forward and we need to be prepared for these situations. Even for someone who starts work the day after they finish university usually gets paid in arrears and often even has to pay a large chunk of rent upfront as well as a deposit, especially if they don’t have much of a work history.

    It’s important to remember the reasons that children are taken into care, it’s not just ‘the easy option’ for anyone but usually occurs when there are very serious problems involved or there really isn’t any one willing and able to take good care of the child. It is so unusual for care leavers to get as far as university and statistically speaking care leavers are much more likely to end up homeless than other people, in adult life. This is already recognised in the legal sense, I don’t see why so many people find this hard to understand.

    I don’t mean this rant to be aimed at anyone of you in particular and I do think that some good posts have been made in this thread. But so often lately I’ve seen people being pushed to somehow justify their problems and rights on here. I just really wanted to make some sort of response to express my views on the issue.

    TT I really hope that your housing issues are resolved soon, they are just the last thing you need right now. You have done so well to get yourself to university with everything else you’ve had to contend with, you are really an inspiring person for the rest of us. Take care of you :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I totally agree....those of you who always have the potential option of moving back into your parents or staying there every holidays, really have no idea what it's like not to have a stable home.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I agree too. Brilliant post as well RG
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well explained RG. Has put a lot of us in our place, either for what we actually said or possibly the ways it's come across.

    xx
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    good post RG, fantastically summed up
Sign In or Register to comment.