The government will deny there is such
a thing as a bedroom tax. The changes to the Housing Benefit system
whereby people deemed to have more space than they need will have
their benefits reduced is not a tax on the poor but a necessary move
to free up homes for the homeless.
Ah so the homeless will benefit. People
will be forced by debt, if not eviction, to vacate two and three
bedroom homes in the social sector freeing them up for homeless
families and others in overcrowded private sector accommodation. If
this works at all, one household will replace another left in
crippling debt.
Why are they in debt?
The under-occupying household will have
a straight reduction in their Housing Benefit of either 14% or 25%.
If their rent was fully paid by HB before they will now have to find
the balance of their rent from their other income that is from their
other benefits.
So out of an income which already
leaves them below the poverty line they will have to find this money.
For the family experiencing this it is not a reduction in Housing
Benefit but a tax on their small amount of money to feed themselves
and pay domestic bills. A bedroom tax.
For social landlords this is a
disaster. They depend on the regular payment of rents by by stable
tenants. They put resources into managing and minimising arrears and
and having a predictable turnover of stock. Since 1st
April many more tenants, most of whom have probably never been in
arrears before, are in debt. The normally predictable income of the
landlord is falling dramatically and tenants who have lived in homes
for decades and form a stabilising core to many communities are being
forced to look for alternative accommodation.
So all the landlord has to do is move
them to smaller properties. Fat chance of that when largely because
of government's failure to invest in housing those properties do not
exist.
The only option left for the tenant is
the private sector where rents will be higher and moving costs will
not be supported. Many private sector landlords will not want a
tenant in debt who has no access to resources to
pay bonds or rent in
advance. This policy will create homelessness.
Private landlords will benefit as
demand for their properties increases.
The government i.e. the taxpayer will
benefit because the welfare bill will be reduced. Well no actually.
Any tenants moving to the private sector will probably cost the state
more in benefit costs. Legal actions to evict tenants will cost
thousands of pounds each. Children will have their education
disrupted as they move schools. Some may end up in care as families
become homeless, a very expensive process.
The Bedroom Tax is only the most
visible of a number of startling benefit changes driving more people
into real hardship.
The bedroom tax is based on the concept
that families are only entitled to the minimum amount of space to
live in. Any more is a luxury. When Bevan started the building of
council houses under the Atlee government his response to the slums was high quality decent homes which his government were proud to build, recession or not. Now the box room which doubles
up as a spare bedroom where visiting family and friends can sleep is
an unaffordable luxury.
Tory ideologues love this tax because
they at core believe economic decline has been caused by idle people
who refuse to work and are softened by generous state benefits to the
point where they lack any entrepreneurial spirit. The argument that
the jobs don't exist doesn't work for them. Go out and make a job,
sell jars of jam to your neighbours.. use your initiative. These are
the people who opposed the minimum wage and would like to remove it.
Nothing like hunger to incentive initiative. These hateful bastards
of course dine on inherited wealth and financial scams. They also
believe that like them, the majority of 'decent' people will have no
sympathy for those struggling on benefits. Wrong again.
All over the country Bedroom Tax campaign groups are springing up. And check out this list of stories
in the Manchester Evening News which is dedicating pages to the issue.
There is a real coalition building of people and organisations revolted by the callousness of this act of a government giving tax breaks to the rich.
Arguments have so far focussed on
people with special needs. What about the right to a decent home for
all as Bevan thought. You shouldn't have to qualify for a boxroom.
This is being imposed by a party whose members have got away with
claiming expenses for a duck house and having a moat cleaned.
