How has the pandemic affected your ability to pay your rent or mortgage?

I was the unfortunate tenant of a non-governmental organisational who pursued my eviction throughout the pandemic and gained their property even though I now could pay, in August 2021. I am a registered nurse and struggling with homelessness. Lack of housing is the true identity of England and is a blight on its image to the world.

Personally, my family situation generally hasn't changed, although I find the banks' ridiculously low interest rates are depleting my savings, in relation to the cost of living.

I have been working at the local food bank, and it's clear that many more people are struggling than before Covid - for those on low wages, increased prices mean they have often have had to choose between paying rent/bills and finding cash for food. There are more who have recently been made redundant, and the numerous low-paid jobs are not paying enough for people to cope. We have many people who are clearly under severe stress - a couple have told me they considered suicide.

I have had Covid-19 twice, and have Long-Covid, which has left me very disabled, and I have lost my job as a result. Hackney Council have not adjusted my Housing Benefit claim (it's over 12 months since I contacted them about my drop in income/job loss) due to the cyber attack. I haven't been able to pay my rent, and my landlord, Peabody, are considering issuing me with a notice to seek repossession. I regularly phone Hackney Council to ask them about my claim, but each time they tell me they can't do anything. I owe my landlord £2,500. I have overpaid my council tax for a year, and nobody told me that I must apply for Council Tax separate to Housing Benefit (in the past, I filled in one Housing Benefit claim and my Council Tax rebate was calculated through this, with out me doing additional paperwork). It means I have overpaid around £900 which I will not be able to get back. As I am living on ESA, this is a huge amount of money, which I could have used to keep my house warm (my disability means I get very cold and am in a lot of pain as a result of this). I need someone to talk to Hackney Housing Benefit and Council Tax on my behalf, and help resolve this issue before I become homeless. A friend suggested contacting my local councillor. I am very unwell, with little energy, and many symptoms post-covid that impact on what I can do. I cannot walk to my corner shop, or concentrate for more than short bursts of time, amongst other very debilitating symptoms. I also have M.E. which I have lived with for 30 years.

Our ability to pay our mortgage has not changed through the pandemic as my husband and I have been luckily enough to have kept our jobs and continued working throughout. Our savings are unchanged. Quality of life was diminished during lockdown, due to the lack of outside social contact and not being able to travel. Furthermore, we were trying to hold down jobs while homeschool our children - this was an extremely difficult situation and we all suffered. Our children missed their friends and teachers and their learning took a hit. We had to call in grandparents for support towards the end of the first lockdown as I fractured my ankle and was subsequently incapacitated for several weeks.

I cannot understand why the councils do not build more properties themselves instead of selling land to private, usually foreign companies to build Tower Blocks, which in turn and everyone who has lived in London all their lives turn into no go zones.. these companies make loads of money selling them on and the councils makes loads of money selling the land to them these companies, but it doesn't help local residents who's towns turn into 3rd world no go zones!

Due to covid I lost my job and developed a health condition, which stops me from working - I am sustaining myself with the help of Universal Credit but it’s a really low amount for London living conditions.
I applied for the LLR scheme but have been rejected - I find this discriminatory due to my disability and subsequent rejection due to receiving benefits.

There’s simply not enough homes being built in my area. This means there’s no options to move out, and when my landlord abuses his power I can’t threaten to leave. More needs to be done to build more houses, so to give tenants more market power and greater ways to enforce their rights. My financial situation has luckily not changed, but I remain in subpar quality housing with landlords who will not do anything to ensure I have an adequate standard of living. This includes broken appliances, no broadband, failure to place my deposit in protected schemes and a host of other problems. All I need in support is more houses to be built so I have the option of actually moved out.

I think more social housing is needed we have past the responsibility of social housing to private landlords they are not up to it as they are business and primarily concerned with profit i have never missed a payment and i am nearly 60 yet i cant get social housing yet i see and know people living in central London who have alfat bigger and better than mine provided by the government there should be a system if you have lived in London for a certain amount of years that this would be in your favor the system at present if you move boroughs as you often have to with private landlords you have to then apply to that borough and again wait 3 years this wrong do something about it

I decided to sell my home, on which I had no mortgage. It was a personal choice. I now have the proceeds of sale in my back account. Now living in rented accommodation because I wanted to live closer to my sons and other amenities which I use regularly.

I am sure that this will not be common among many of your respondents. My only concern now, as I am living in rented accommodation for the first time in my adult life is that I have now realised how important the landlord/tenant relationship is in the quality of one’s life. My landlord owns multi properties, but is either incompetent or very inefficient in dealing with problems. So I have exchanged location, for peace of mind. I am really not sure that I like the ‘deal’ I have done. So there is a warning I would offer to all who rent and intend to do so for more than 6/12 months, it’s much less comforting to live in a house owned by someone/some institution and I am not just taking about the security of tenure.

After the breakdown of my relationship just after the first lockdown, I had to temporarily move away to clear some of my debts and try to find alternative living arrangements. I was able to move back in February 2021. I am now paying a rent I find relatively reasonable, but the cost of utilities is a burden. We don't put the heating on much because of the cost of the bills, so our flat is often very cold.
I'm still struggling under some historical debts that I'm never able to clear as I simply don't earn enough money to properly pay things off or save anything. I have frequently run out of money completely (and I mean *completely*) about two weeks after having been paid so rely on my housemate to keep us fed. I've been working in my job for five years and for all of that time I've been under a pay freeze or a pay cap as we count as civil servants (when it suits the government, not all the time).
I don't think I have a great quality of life. There are a lot of things I could really do with that I can't afford. For example, I have had mental health issues for over a decade and can't afford counselling. Similarly, I have an historical back problem that would benefit from osteopathy but I can't afford that either. When I have run out of money, I can't do anything except sit indoors unless one of my friends is feeling benevolent and offers to take me out and pay for everything. I don't buy new clothes, tech, or anything else. I hate being as old as I am and having no savings whatsoever.
Unfortunately, even though I like my job and where I work, I think I will have to look at going somewhere else next year so I can try to earn more money. If I'm not successful, I will have to seriously look at moving out of London in 2024.

Up until now, we have been able to continue to invoice enough to pay the mortgage and stay afloat, but with increasing infection rates (again), we feel less certain about the future. Will our clients/customers continue to request our services as they struggle more and more and lay off people?

It has reduced it. I am fortunate enough to have savings so I can afford my rent so far. But I have lost income because usually I have a flatmate who shares the rent and bills. But because I am clinically vulnerable I have not been able to have a flatmate for much of the last 21 months. I am ok so far, but the pandemic has damaged my finances quite badly. Also I have been more lonely because of having to live alone so much and be socially isolated because of the pandemic

The worst is the behaviour of the people. Already struggling with high price of the rent and you end up living with all sorts of anti social behaviours around you. All sorts of lunatices, noisy neighbours, fly tippers, drug users all over making noise and leaving a mess, no security on the streets at night. Councils should invest in cleaning this mess and introducing tougher measures against nuisance and delinquency and then think to give free r cheap houses to all the delinquents of this country. And honest hard working people paying extortionate taxes and rents to pay for all this mess.
What a shame

There should be an organisation to oversee/regulate all rental houses/flats in order to ensure fair rents for all.

The situation in London appears to be uncontrolled in terms of how much an agency/landlord can increase rental prices. An average monthly rental price for one bed flat in E14 was £1250 in March/April 2021, and now Nov/Dec 2021 has increased by £200 already, for the same type of flat.

The housing situation is so simple to solve: build high quality social housing in large numbers. People will pay you back with rent and if you want to buy, then go for it. A government has three key duties: 1) to make sure there is food, 2) to make sure we are safe and 3) to ensure we have homes.
Food is largely sorted, although we can shift to more sustainable food sources grown in our country. Safety is in chaos as we extricate ourselves from thinking we can boss the world - the military should become essentially a rescue service. And house building is in chaos as we’ve abrogated all responsibility to the private sector and they are interested in greed. We need to base our housing on high quality green homes built to last at least 500 years. Let the private sector carry on building their luxury money boxes and the public sector concentrate on homes fit for heroes. To fund this, government should print the money for the job and keep a close eye on the outcome. Government should stop borrowing money off banks and start funding specific limited jobs in the national interest. Banks can look after
Themselves with the private sector. No competition, just sensible partnership.

Disabled because of traumatic brain injury.
Finances ruined by Social Services over a number of years causing real financial hardship.
They booted my wife and our cat out of the flat because Court Service incompetence took away my ability to file an application to the court.
Three months plus of sleeping on the concrete floor in a freezing workroom with a leaking and crumbling ceiling above a friend's shop because lazy and stupid public servants as well as GPs putting me on the wrong medication ensured that our lives have been totally destroyed. Seven years of trying to obtain advocacy and redress with no success.
A short rope and a long drop are seeming more & more attractive by the day.
I have no future.

I think my response will contrast greatly with others’. I live alone in a flat which I own. The impact of the virus has been social rather than worry about having roof over my head. So my point here is about recognising those not in such an easy situation and hoping that the public generally will be helped to appreciate that homelessness and poor housing is no indicator of the value of those people in need of help. Combatting loneliness via community or volunteering schemes can help raise awareness and give people with low income and/or poor housing an opportunity to join with a mix of people to bring some cheer. To give an example - local fruit harvesting groups.