Heartbreaking. Grandmother commits suicide due to bedroom tax.

[Darkesteyes]

This is heart rending. She left a note before heading to the moterway.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-victim-commits-suicide-1883600#.UY6lhlQGgMY.twitter

[flippinada]

Pressed send too soon :) - of course I've heard of those things

Losing your home is tough and extremely stressful for everyone, I wouldn't dream of saying otherwise and indeed have been there myself.

But it's a fact that if you own your own home you are likely to be in a more financially secure position - because you have the financial wherewithal to buy in the first place.

Someone who hasn't been able to work through years of illness can't just go out and get a job, how are they supposed to improve their financial situation?

[janey68]

I also think in future social housing should come with a regular review, eg: every 5 years, to check whether the tenant still needs a property that size. The whole concept of a council house for life, regardless of how many are living in it, is simply not tenable or fair. People in private rentals who havent been able to get social housing don't have anywhere near the security of council tenants , and even home owners at the mercy of falling house prices and rising interest rates can in reality have fewer options open to them, so this isn't a case of being harsh, it's simply recognising that in the big scheme of things, being offered a one bed place or being expected to pay £20 a week for a 3 bed place is hardly unreasonable.

Still a tragedy though for all the people affected by this

[PeneloPeePitstop]

Some people have really had a number done on them by the government's propaganda machine.

Up until the severely disabled child legislation in the first week of March we were expected to pay BT. Now due to social rents being increased by the government to closer to market rents (yes they've done this) my 10% would have been £31 a week. Out of income support and carers allowance that would have been a third of our income. We're not allowed to use our other in comings as we get letters full of I'd warnings that that money must be used for the kids' needs... Which it is by the way. Not quite sure why the DWP harasses us with it.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't contemplated suicide over the stresses placed on us by welfare reform and cuts to NHS services. I have even found myself on the top of a car park. The thing that stops me is the fear of my kids going into residential care - DH can't do it on his own so that's what I'd do to them and I won't do that.

The DWP and SS know that though, which means they get to evade supporting us. Doesn't matter if we break.

As for family support DH's parents are dead and my mother, although not particularly elderly has arthritis herself, so she does what she can but that's not much. I've disowned my siblings as they think its as simple as telling me to 'get a job' having spent no more than two hours with my kids since they were born - my eldest is now 9. They have no idea of my life and no wish to know.

I save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds a year at my own physical and mental expense yet I also face utter contempt from some people on here.

Try walking in someone's shoes before you judge them in the ways I've seen on this thread.

[FasterStronger]

peneloppee - that sounds incredibly tough - but the woman in the story was well enough to keep her garden well tended so not the same circumstances.

[Madamecastafiore]

Sorry Penelope but what has what you have posted got to do with subsidising someone to live in a house which is far bigger than they need.

I would prefer the government to slash benefits for those who are able to work, only pay benefits for 2 children and chuck money at people like you to make your life easier. As I am sure everyone would.

But the crux of the matter is that this woman did not need to stay in a 3 bed house.

[LapsedPacifist]

I truly hate the bedroom tax and am as bleeding-heart liberal and Tory-hating as they come, but this poor woman had problems way over and above the bedroom tax.

She was not 'old' and helpless FFS, she was only a year older than I am! She apparently suffered from a disability which prevented her from working all her adult life but had for some reason never registered as disabled, OR got anyone to help her do so, to get the benefits she should have been entitled to.

She refused the offer of alternative housing because she didn't want to move away from her adult children, but they seemed to have been unaware of how desperate she was feeling about her financial situation, or the fact she wasn't eating but had 30 times of custard in the house. She obviously wasn't telling anyone anything about her difficulties. Surely if they'd known, they would have helped her out financially so she could stay living close to them?

It isn't uncommon for people to commit suicide and leave behind a note citing the most immediate of their problems as the cause, when in fact there have been many many long-standing issues contributing to their suicidal depression.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

It shows that the BT as a policy is deeply flawed. Yes we're ok but individuals with adult disabled children still needing high level care are still affected - ie bedrooms converted to lift shafts or to keep necessary bulky equipment are still counted as bedrooms even if they still cannot be used as such, so families with no other choice are having to pay on a very restricted income.

BT is not doing what it's creators intended, people cannot downsize as properties not available. Those that can do so into the private sector are increasing housing benefit bills as private rents are higher, thus welfare spending is going up.

Houses are not always too big for needs. The couple who has one partner on a large apnoea machine so they can't share a room are paying bedroom tax.

Yet a single pensioner living in a four bedroom house yet only able to live in one room would get full rent paid - no attack on pensioners but if this was truly to solve the housing crisis then pensioners and sex offenders wouldn't be exempt.

My post was also to demonstrate that the intimidatory letters from the DWP are frightening. They give me panic attacks. If you're in a difficult situation like mine then it IS enough to send you over the edge if you have other stressors.

[FasterStronger]

but this was a 52/53 yo woman in a 3 bed house with no special adaptions - so not the same as someone needing special bulky equipment.

[Viviennemary]

People aren't paying bedroom tax. Nobody is paying bedroom tax. People are having the amount they are allocated for housing benefit reduced if they live in a property that is considered too large for their requirements. In this case one person in a three bedroomed house. If she was unable to work all her life because of disability I don't understand why she was not getting Incapacity benefit or whatever the equivalent is now and DLA.

This country has one of the most generous welfare systems in the world. And that is a fact.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

Live on it then, Vivienne.

[MrsSalvoMontalbano]

Vivienne - well said. She clearly did not want the children to blame themselves, so left them a note blaming others so they would not feel guilty. And shame on them for making it public.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Try walking a mile in someone's shoes before thinking you have all the answers.

[Viviennemary]

Nobody knows the amount of money this lady had to live on or whether she was claiming all benefits she was entitled to. I don't have all the answers. But welfare and benefits need to be reformed to ensure those in the most need are getting the most help.

[snowballinashoebox]

Yes she was one person in a 3 bed house but where are the suitable 1 bed flats? Successive governments have not built social housing, it's been sold off, owned mostly now, certainly where I live, by private landlords reaping the benefits of high rents. The farce behind the tax on bedrooms being that once forced into private rentals the rent will be far higher, so costing us more.

Where is the compassion for those weaker in society here? I can't believe that anyone can be so far removed from reality to realise that £20 a week would indeed cause serious distress to someone who struggled with life to whatever degree this poor lady did.

There are so many cases as penelopeepitstop has herself highlighted and it wrong to attack the most vulnerable members of our society in order to satisfy the daily mail wail of comfy undeserving poor, sick and disabled.

What about the families suffering from dv with panic rooms, they are also affected.

The weakest members of our society are being pressured, the DWP letters are indeed intimidating and we should hang our heads in shame for letting this happen.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

We're not though.
It's being eroded.

[FasterStronger]

The farce behind the tax on bedrooms being that once forced into private rentals the rent will be far higher, so costing us more.

but the social housing will be occupied by people with need for more space - who otherwise would have been requiring larger private rentals.

so more small private properties will be paid for using HB, but fewer larger ones, which will be more expensive.

if social housing is better used, the costs cannot increase and there are more people - just more housed in cheaper social housing.

[mumblechum1]

It certainly does sound like social housing needs to be swapped around regularly so that as people's families become bigger or smaller, they're housed in appropriate accommodation.

It sounds as though part of the problem is that once someone is in a property, they're stuck there even if they have more children, or indeed their children move out.

Maybe the government should make it more attractive to move to a more appropiately sized property when circumstances change.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

Even that would only work by making more housing available, in smaller sizes too, to enable downsizing.

[MrsSalvoMontalbano]

It is clearly untenable that a single person should be subsidised to live in a three bedroom property when there are families in B&Bs. with all the stress that generates. Better that those families have the houses, so the children can be placed in schools, and have security of knowing that they have a home for the duration of their schooling, and beyond , if they continue to live with their parents.
The rules do not force a person to move, even though morally they should - they can still stay if they want to, but, not at all unreasonably, they have to pay more.

[FasterStronger]

penelopee - how so?

you have a family of 4 say in private rental paid by HB and a single person in a 3 bed social house.

the family moves into the social house = no change in cost
but the single person will be cheaper to house in private rental than family of 4.

so a net saving. how can it be otherwise?

[CrispyHedgeHog]

Some of you are incredibly heartless. I despair of humanity if this thread is representative of that.

There are thousands of people being negatively affected by these new policies. There have been 4-5 suicides in the last month alone. People being left with no income due to ATOS/DWP fuck ups.

I know of people who can only eat once every other day. One person I know didn't eat for 9 days because he had no money, no way of getting to a job centre and the area in which he lived had virtually no support services to help him. He's now been in hospital for a week. They want to discharge him but he has no where to go.

Most of us are only 1 accident, illness or redundancy away from being in similar circumstance. It would serve some of you well to remember that while you're judging from your ivory towers.

[PeneloPeePitstop]

Ok. So if I hadn't had an incredibly understanding paediatrician who gave us documentary evidence of our need for our house I'd have been in the same boat as other parents round here who had a certain home size to meet family disability need and have to give it up for someone more 'deserving'.

That's fair, oh yes. We're only parasites, that's all. Not human beings.

BT is not achieving its aims and just like ATOS is killing people.

I certainly won't be shouting out if this shower in government start attacking ivory tower-ites.

[Darkesteyes]

I certainly won't be shouting out if this shower in government start attacking ivory tower-ites.

Neither will i Penelope.
Instead i shall be doing the i told you so song/dance from Will and Grace.

[snowballinashoebox]

fasterstronger Try finding a private rental if you claim benefits.

[janey68]

Many objectors to the so called 'bedroom tax' based their objection on the fact that there aren't enough alternative smaller properties. But this woman WAS offered a smaller alternative. She just didn't want it. Ok, it would have meant changes, new neighbours, further from her adult children ( maybe) and not having the garden she'd lovingly tended. But fgs is anyone seriously suggesting that its the governments responsibility to keep everyone in the exact same conditions simply because they find change emotionally hard? What about people in private rentals who have to move? What about people with mortgages who are made redundant or who's payments double overnight when interest rates shoot up? I'd love to hear some serious practical proposals for how this Would work: after all, all these people are equally deserving

I want a welfare state where people's needs are met when they cannot help themselves. . A single woman does not NEED a 3 bedroom house. There was no issue about needing specialist equipment. She simply did not want to move to an entirely reasonable alternative property.