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AIBU?

The bedroom tax

248 replies

jonicomelately · 23/08/2015 16:28

How can anyone support a Government who inflict this on people? There are no words...

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/brutality-bedroom-tax-exposed-disgraceful-9911421

OP posts:

Report

LumpySpacedPrincess · 23/08/2015 16:59

It's awful isn't it, and that won't be an isolated case either. The tories did a great job demonizing benefit claimants which was supported by the media and that's why a lot of people just don't care.

SaucyJack · 23/08/2015 17:00

There are 500,000 people who've been subjected to the loss of the spare room subsidy.

I can't honestly agree that providing one single example of a person who has suffered through no fault of their own means the whole thing should be scrapped.

It's perfectly fair and reasonable on the vast majority of cases.

bigcomfyduvet · 23/08/2015 17:05

I do think a home with two able bodied adults should be able to afford £25 a week.

OldBloodCallsToOldBlood · 23/08/2015 17:09

'Should' being the operative word there, bigcomfyduvet. Obviously they couldn't or they wouldn't have lost the specially adapted house, would they?

bigcomfyduvet · 23/08/2015 17:11

They have another home that's been adapted. The only complaint seems to be the bedroom is too small.

jonicomelately · 23/08/2015 17:14

It may be fair and reasonable in some cases, but clearly the discretion isn't being applied in all cases. Surely this has to be looked at?

Bigcomfyduvet I have been a carer. Thankfully for me this did not continue indefinitely and I can honestly say it was the most tiring thing I have ever done in my life. I couldn't earn 25 pence a week, never mind £25. If the care was 24 hour as in the cited case I can easily imagine two people needing to care for the person with the disability full time.

OP posts:

jonicomelately · 23/08/2015 17:15

I think the complaint is the fact they were made to leave their home rather than their currently, thankfully better, circumstances.

OP posts:

bigcomfyduvet · 23/08/2015 17:15

True. But a four bedroomed house for two people (well, needing two bedrooms) is excessive. After all, adapted bathrooms can be needed by young people with big families too.

BuggerLumpsAnnoyed · 23/08/2015 17:23

Yes but the raving stupidity of the bedroom tax is there isn't the necessary smaller housing available for people to move to. Its all very well saying that people shouldn't live in a house that's too big for them when we have limited housing stock and in principle I agree, but it's simply moronic to just tax these people instead of working with them for a feasible solution.

StonedGalah · 23/08/2015 17:24

Agree with Saucy

jonicomelately · 23/08/2015 17:24

I agree big and it's hard to decide who's need is greatest in those circumstances but as the article states the home is now occupied by an elderly couple who are using just one bedroom, the family needing four bedrooms and the adapted bathroom simply didn't exist. My point then is apply the discretion!

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JanetBlyton · 23/08/2015 17:29

Most people support the changes because they want larger homes which are subsidised to go to families who need it. We want to stop the bed blockers.

bigcomfyduvet · 23/08/2015 17:29

Yes, that is stupid, and frustrating. I'm just thinking of a 19 year old girl I know who was hurt badly in an accident and wants to move somewhere adapted with her mum and sisters but there's nowhere so she's stuck downstairs and struggles to have a proper wash and so on which is horrible for anybody but more so a teenage girl, you know?

LumpySpacedPrincess · 23/08/2015 17:29

Yes but the raving stupidity of the bedroom tax is there isn't the necessary smaller housing available for people to move to. Its all very well saying that people shouldn't live in a house that's too big for them when we have limited housing stock and in principle I agree, but it's simply moronic to just tax these people instead of working with them for a feasible solution.

That's how it is round here, there isn't anywhere for people to downsize to so they just end up paying more.

HelenaDove · 23/08/2015 17:33

I saw this on twitter last night. Where is the dignity Where is the humanity. The article says the disabled man has the mental age of four. He must have been so confused and likely couldnt understand what on earth was happening.

joni i totally agree. My elderly aunt has worn herself out so much by caring for my uncle who had a stroke which caused brain damage that they now both need care. So my cousin (an only child) has now had to give up his job in insurance to be their full time carer.

They get some help but they have to pay £200 a month for it. They are not affected by bedroom tax but if they were they couldnt afford to pay for that and pay for the help they do get.

Birdsgottafly · 23/08/2015 17:33

""It's perfectly fair and reasonable on the vast majority of cases.""

I'm in Liverpool, I work for a Welfare Rights charity, it hasn't been fair and reasonable in barely any cases that I've come across.

We didn't need this in Liverpool, it hasn't freed up houses that were needed, or saved HB any money.

The pledge that disabled people wouldn't be affected, was lies, as were other promises surrounding the cuts.

""I do think a home with two able bodied adults should be able to afford £25 a week.""

Outside of London, we have a combination of a lack of jobs and low wages.

The houses around me stand empty, the tenants have left because of the bedroom tax, it's a hard to let area, I've posted about before.

A three bed house, with gardens is £320 a month, the HB won't cover a bedroom not being used, so two of the men now get full HB paid on a one bed flat costing £380 a month.

They started renting to under occupiers, to break up the problem families, now we have an increase in anti social behaviour because of empty houses and single men, who would sort the trouble causing lads out, being gone.

They're building more family houses, yet over the last five years, we've had four schools close, so we are heading into a crisis.

caroldecker · 23/08/2015 17:37

The discretion should have been applied by the housing association and the local council.

From the article: To make it worse, a few months after we left our adapted house we were told we shouldn’t have had to go. Rob did meet the criteria to stay where he was.

The fault is with the housing association and possibly the council, not the government.

Please lay the blame where it lies.

jonicomelately · 23/08/2015 17:37

Helena I feel so sorry for your poor Aunt. When DP was on one of his stints in hospital one of the most heartbreaking things I saw was an elderly woman visiting her husband. They were both patients on different wards and he had worn himself out looking after her for many years. I'll never forget it.

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Iamnotloobrushphobic · 23/08/2015 17:38

The bedroom tax would only be fair if everyone who is in a property that is larger than they need can be offered a suitable smaller property. As it stands we are penalising people for being unable to move to a smaller property even if they want to.
The family in the OPs link have been treated appallingly and it is clear that they should have been exempted from the outset unless a 2 bed adapted property could have been found at the time.

SaucyJack · 23/08/2015 17:38

Maybe it's a regional thing then Birds.

I live in the SE. There are children sleeping six to a room in B&Bs and hostels.

Anyone who thinks we should be paying for up to three empty bedrooms for healthy adults who don't work from one decade to the next needs their head read.

OldBloodCallsToOldBlood · 23/08/2015 17:38

I'm in Liverpool too - out of curiosity, what area is that Birdsgottafly?

Birdsgottafly · 23/08/2015 17:41

jist to add, Liverpool has been hardest hit, by all the cuts/changes, proven by many financial reader hers, but we can not afford for the amount of money that has been cut, to not circulate in our economy.

Our high streets are boarded up shops, charity shops and fast food/pound land type places, minimally staffed. We are causing more unemployment.

What is overlooked is that we need people to spend money, for our economy to work for all of us.

I've seen more fly tipping etc and in people's defence they don't have £70 for a skip, or £35 for rubbish removal. The same with the lack of care for gardens etc.

It's certainly getting grim up north (said by someone who loves her City).

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HelenaDove · 23/08/2015 17:41

carol the trouble with that is that there is a massive assumption that HAs are charities because thats the image that is projected.

They arent though. They are businesses which this case proves. There are some fantastic HAs out there but there are also a few who cant be arsed to do things properly.

Birdsgottafly · 23/08/2015 17:42

Old, just between Dovecot and Page Moss, up the road is Stockbridge Village and Norris Green, I've posted about the crime on here and haven't been believed.

HelenaDove · 23/08/2015 17:42

Saucy the article isnt about a healthy adult though.

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