BEDROOM tax has the potential to deliver a devastating blow to the poorest people in society both on an individual level and through housing associations.
Disabled Scots like Janice Martin fear the bedroom tax Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record
THE dreaded bedroom tax – which will trap thousands of council and housing association tenants in rent arrears – has the potential to deliver a devastating blow to the poorest people in society.
From April, social housing tenants who receive housing benefit will have their support cut by 14 to 25 per cent if they have one or more “spare” bedrooms in their house.
The inverted commas are important because a room classed as spare by this miserable Government may actually be in use – just not every night of the week.
Most people in that situation cannot move into a one-bedroom house because there are simply none available – and, in any case, they need their so-called spare room.
Their housing support is going to be cut and they have no alternative accommodation to move into.
There are thousands of other cases – the disabled, the mothers of armed forces personnel and foster carers – who need for one reason or another to have the space for people staying over.
In the heat of criticism, the Government are moving crab-like towards some concessions, on foster parents and troops serving overseas.
But the vast majority of housing tenants will be pushed into stretching their frozen wages or benefits to breaking point.
No wonder people like Janice Martin – who we interview today – feel they are being pushed to breaking point themselves by worry over how they will cope.
Not just individuals will be hurt. Housing associations – who rely on rent to give them income and credit for borrowing to build new houses – will have their credit rating hurt by arrears. That will mean less houses for rent in the social sector.
As the Government’s crawling concessions, show this is another ill-thought-out policy devised to take a short-cut route to saving money.
There are no short-cuts in reducing poverty – but then this Government seem set on creating more poverty, not less.
The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have prioritised a tax cut for millionaires while devastating the lives of people who have done nothing to deserve it.
15 Responses
we are all in the same position its frightening! im know on anti depressants which is costing more for the NHS, and tax payers, it makes no sense. I have been told buy my housing officer not to worry because they will evict me then i’ll have somewhere to live oh and it will be there choice where i live not mine! DONT WORRY are you kidding me,i live in Bromley Kent and i have joined home swappers with absolutely no success . there isnt any one bed properties! i have supported my country and mp’s for years i have paid my taxes when i was fit and able now i find myself incapacitated im forgotten about and chucked on the heap with the garbage, because thats what they think of us!shame on all you politicians i hope you sleep well at night because WE DONT. i will keep fighting , we must all keep fighting! good luck to all of us x
I feel exactly the same. I was a police officer for 20 odd years and had to take early retirement due to ill health. I have had heart surgery, have dibetes, osteo arthritis and suffer from depression. What did this heartless tory coven do – stop all my esa and nearly made me destitute. I have been living on £300 a month since September last year and my appeal is due on 3/4/2013. My lass and I are desperate. If I can help with this fight then I will, just let me know how. I am in Newcastle where there are no jobs and no hope. The tories are nazis in disguise. All this unrest being caused is cultivating civil and then international war, just like in the 20s and 30s.
YOUR RIGHT MIKE I HAVE SEEN THIS FOR YEARS .. JEFF LPH ..
I wonder,just wonder,if there are any people who voted Tory at the last election who will be affected by “the bedroom tax”in two years no one will own up to having voted Tory.
Whatever next ?…
http://www.countercurrents.org/adams280710.htm
“This is vital as we head towards the 2016 decision point on whether or not Trident should be replaced. Vast sums of money are being poured into developments at Aldermaston, even before any decision is taken on Trident.”
“The total cost of a replacement for Trident would be over £100 billion. At this time of cuts to jobs, housing and public services think what else Trident’s £100 billion could be spent on! We say it’s time to scrap Trident, and on April Fools’ Day we’ll be telling the government to ‘stop fooling with nuclear weapons’!”
http://www.cnduk.org/campaigns/no-to-trident/item/1566-time-to-scrap-trident-stop-fooling-with-nuclear-weapons
A TOTAL waste of money…
What is classed as a bedroom? In the Housing Act 1985 a room under 50sq ft is not a legal bedroom for anyone, a room 50-70sq ft can only sleep one child under 10 years old, so any room under 70 sq ft can not be counted as a spare bedroom for someone without children, I hope this helps someone. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/68/section/326
I have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
The cancer nurses ae sending in my dla claim.
Any bets on whether I get paid before I die?
Aye.
Me neither.
Get wise, do you honestly think the reason we are under attack is because of the shortage of one bedroom homes?.
Dream on. This was perpetrated intentionally as another tax on the poor.
Our government looked into this heinous move in great depth prior to announcing it in the welfare reform bill.
They knew that they had an excuse for implementing it and we are starting to believe that what they say may have some creedence.
Its time to wake up!!!!
Since when has it been an offence, open to enforced taxation, to have spare rooms in your home?
The answer is NEVER….
Our electorate is being played like patsys!!!
By virtue of the fact that none of the previous governments have actively progressed a national housebuilding agenda, you, the people are being made to blame….
Yes it now becomes our fault, and you will pay to rectify it.
Bollocks! Stand your ground on this issue……..
Its one step toward the coalition telling you how many kids you can have, a chinese style dictatorship enshrined in wealth and power for the party heads and cronies.
Every thing we touch is being made harder to negotiate through spiralling costs. Flights are being made unaffordable by rocketing taxes, fast becoming a treat for the affluent only.
We are being stampeded into a corner at an alarming rate.
Basics are becoming looked upon as delicacies……
You should be afforded the basic right of a home, regardless of room sizes, the basic right to eat real, nutritious food at affordable prices and the provision of gas and electricity at an affordable tariff. Water should be flowing through your pipes for peanuts. It falls from the sky, its not manufactured.
” Pissing on you from a great height, they continue to rub your noses in it”.
I am Disgusted by the Spineless Slavishness of the Great British Public as Well as
the Gormless Nation Wrecking of the ” Conservatives ” and Liberal Democrats
A Real Life Horror Story Summons Up the United Kingdom Situation in Terms of
Politics and Quality of Life for those in Poverty
Revolution and Redistribution of Wealth from Rich to Poor is the Answer
DISABLED SCOTTS.
IT HAPPING IN ENGLAND TO THIS SITE IS TO NARROW,FIND SUPPORT FROM THE WHOLE OF THE UK PLEASE.
JEFF LPH .. SO ARE THERE NOT HARD PRESSED DISSABLED PEOPLE IN ENGLAND
The terrible events that led to the unacceptable loss of life at Staffordshire Health Trust are now available for everyone to see.
If it was not for the relentless quest of the bereaved families and healthcare personnel the scandal would probably remain hidden…..
Sadly the number of people who succumb to death from acts of total barbarism by our own government are carefully concealed. Suicides are well documented, indeed the DWP are sent updates, yet prefer to hide in the hope that they will fade into obscurity.
Every opportunity should be made to make them aware, that we, the victims, recognise the depth of their complicity, in what must be Ethnic Cleansing of the Poor and Disabled on a humongous scale.
Each and every move this coalition make, is a strategic attack on the very fibre of our lives. We are hurtling backwards to a time that we laid to rest in our history.
Starvation, Food Banks and being forced to move from your homes on orders from the elite are perfect ingredients for a revolution…..
They are laying down a challenge to every man and woman in our country. They are saying, “put up or shut up”.
Enough is enough…………………
About the bedroom tax – see Iamspartacus and elsewhere for news of a court case arguing that failing to support the need not to share a bedroom when the child has a disability is against human rights. There are similar arguments for couples and also an argument that failing to support separated parents who need the extra children for children to stay over is gainst the human rights act right to family life. May well not win and even if they do it will take a long time but seems worth a try if these might apply to you .
If you glance quickly at the rear of osbornes head you will notice a slight bump in his hair.
The colour of his skin is another giveaway, pallid, an eerie white.
Beneath his hair is the central control unit that controls the stainless steel muscular skeleton. Energy to power the centralised motor comes from a unique, state of the art, solar panel in his groin.
The groin in tandem with his back passage, control speech.
The central control unit used to consist of a memory bank from a vintage saturn rocket but has been replaced with a spoonful of pink blancmange.
Sadly this robot had many faults, mainly the power to differentiate right from wrong and the simple task of running an economy.
Iain Duncan Smith, however, contains none of the components fitted to the mark one. He is just a naturally ignorant, horrible individual. Future development may see the removal of his existing, inert brain for the implant of a terrapin unit, failing that, two ounces of pease pudding.
George Lucas is interested in signing them both, hopefully in a galaxy far away……..
i am a single 56 yr old woman living in a 2 bed council property which i have been a tenant for 35 yrs. i have brought up my 3 children who have all left home now but kept them and any pets we have had under control and never been a nuisance neighbour, have kept my house and garden clean , tidy and in good decorative order. At the moment i am unable to work full time due to having arthritis and vasculitis (i was receiving incapacity benefit but failed the atos medical and am in the proccess of appealing against the decision) so i am surviving on esa of £71.00 per week which will rise to £71.70 in april. In april i will have to pay £12 a week for my spare bedroom and £6 per week towards my council tax , this is a quarter of my income gone before i start paying for electric £10 per week, gas £20 per week,£3 per week tv licence, water £10 per week (i have applied for a water meter so hopefully that will save me about £3 per week but cant get that fitted until end of april) This leaves me with the grand total of £10.70 a week to buy food, clothes, toiletries and cleaning products. I dont want to leave my home as i have grandchildren that come to stay overnight and also would not be able to meet the costs of moving house as i have no savings.I dont know anybody who would rather exist on benefits if they were able to work to support themselves as it is a very miserable worrying life.