http://glyn-davies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/spare-room-subsidybedroom-tax.html
There is no justification for the bedroom tax. It is a tax based on ideological spite rather than on saving money or on fairness. There is an ideological minority in the Tory Party that hates the poor and the bedroom tax is am ideological sop to them.
The fact that the bedroom tax had been inflicted on those who live in private rented accommodation before it was inflicted on people in social accommodation is not an argument in favour of the bedroom tax. It is wrong in both cases and, as the old saying goes - two wrongs do not make a right!
As it happens I have some sympathy with the problem of people living in houses that are too big for them blocking housing. My parents are part of the problem! They live in a five bedroom ex-council house - sold to them by the last Tory Government and taken out of the social housing mix. But if they sell it they couldn't afford a smaller house in the private housing market.
If your lot hadn't destroyed the social housing stock in the first place the problem wouldn't have arisen. The Bedroom Tax is punishing the poor for the effects of the anti poor policies of Thatcherism – that you and yours celebrate.
The sickest thing about your policy is that if my parents hadn't wasted money on oversubscribing their little wealth into buying a council house, which may be eaten up by age care costs, they could be living in a council bungalow with a spare room that their children, grandchildren and great grand children could use on visits. But even that would not be allowed if they were re-housed under the bedroom tax!
My local housing Authority says it is an direct imposition on their tenants, because they have no alternative accommodations to downsize to, thus trapping people into paying this tax without any other option. As regards to disabled, elderly etc they will pay the tax rather than take in lodgers etc, which puts them at risk of abuse, and may well prevent carer staying overnight to look after them, so the claim families can get accommodation as a result of forcing others to downsize, is not going to work, but hey, they get the cuts in to the poorest regardless. Which is the point, to punis the poor and vulnerable and amke them look bad,while they give £50K tax relief to millionaires, who have 15 bedroomed housing...
ReplyDeleteIt was awful to hear Michael Portillo on 'This Week' referring to the poor as 'sinners.' More and more supposedly humorous sites talk about Chavtowns and how 'chavs' should be exterminated.This is not to mention attacks on disabled people whch will perhaps make it literally impossible for them to remain alive.What can be done about this government? Is there no chance that it can be toppled before the general election of 2015?
ReplyDeleteMarianne Y Fenni
Perhaps the real sinners were the Blair/Brown government who refused to stop the sale of council homes in their 13 years of tenure, let alone replace the ones that were sold. Indeed Ed Milliband thinks it's a good idea - as this bbc news article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15083920 quotes him as saying "Some of what happened in the 1980s was right. It was right to let people buy their council houses. It was right to cut tax rates of 60, 70, 80 percent. And it was right to change the rules on the closed shop, on strikes before ballots. These changes were right, and we were wrong to oppose it at the time."
DeleteIf they were genuine about helping people in "under occupied homes" then they would be offering relocation grants, to pay for the cost of moving, and giving a little bit of a bonus - more carrot and not stick. But as there is a huge disparity between housing and housing need even this would not be sufficient. We need a home building program that matches local need to local building. Also everyone should have one spare bedroom, for emergencies etc.
ReplyDeleteI asked local social housing people here how many smaller home options were actually available and how many were in housing too big for them ? They had no idea, they just said look up the 'homes' section yourself to see what is available. I duly did and found, they were 300 premises short of offering any downsized accommodation, repeat that thought all social landlords, we see what the BS is from the hateful tory government. The local paper said 3,000 who might need to downsize, the only available accommodations, was 38, assuming you showed no preference at all, or wanted a choice for where you wanted to live. So it is a straight tax with no alternatives.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another example of the concerted attack on the welfare state by a morally bankrupt Neo-Liberal government. The Americanisation of the UK is moving forward at a pace, ironically, when under Obama the USA is trying to move in the opposite direction. If anyone in Scotland is still unsure which way to vote in the forthcoming freedom referendum then I would reccommend they try to imagine the carnage that would be inflicted on their communities by a second term Neo-con government! Sadly things will get worse as this odious government continue with their politically motivated dismantling of the welfare state. The only positives I can see is that as they continue their work even the "Welsh worm" may turn.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another example of the concerted attack on the welfare state by a morally bankrupt Neo-Liberal government. The Americanisation of the UK is moving forward at a pace, ironically, when under Obama the USA is trying to move in the opposite direction. If anyone in Scotland is still unsure which way to vote in the forthcoming freedom referendum then I would reccommend they try to imagine the carnage that would be inflicted on their communities by a second term Neo-con government! Sadly things will get worse as this odious government continue with their politically motivated dismantling of the welfare state. The only positives I can see is that as they continue their work even the "Welsh worm" may turn.
ReplyDeleteSadly the Americanisation of the UK is continuing at a pace. Ironic when you consider that Obama is trying to move the USA in the opposite direction. As the UK's odious Neo-Con government dismantle the welfare state piece by piece I cannot believe how little opposition there is. The Labour party and Unions appear impotent and the concentrated propaganda campaign directed against the weakest in society seems to have succeeded in its dirty work. If this doesn't convince the Scots how much they need their freedom in their forthcoming referendum, nothing will. Maybe when the ConDems propose the total abolition of all benefits even the "Welsh worm" may finally turn? We can but hope!
ReplyDeleteTories are winning the media war. near 52% of the population views benefit claimants as total frauds and fakes, disabled as free loaders,and old people too rich to be claiming, the rhetoric is pretty dire. It was noted somewhere not since WW2 has the media been utilised in such as way as to portray myth as fact. We are architects of our own destruction by not taking this government to court and attacking crimes against humanity, or using the online medias to destroy their arguments. Tories have tapped into the disaffected and disolutioned, to suggest the vulnerable are to blame. 5% are frauds, ATOS rejected 50%, 10 times that number,and 1700 elderly, disabled and sick have since died as a result. Yet rewarded their supporters with £10K tax breaks,let them eat cake.... we will park in the disability spaces too !
ReplyDeleteThere is opposition, but the threats are real to that opposition. Tories have removed financial support to bring cases, and who can afford on benefits, to mount an lengthy legal case ? With the rabid media attacking all claimants as fraudulent thieves and killers of children, it is an concerted attack on the most vulnerable in society. Not seen since 1930s Germany.
ReplyDeleteIt's official, 28,000 eligible to downsize, but only 400 1 bed flats exist, and that entails you get no choice whatever where.
ReplyDelete