Bedroom tax will lead to beggars on street, claim
Sandwell's finance chief claims the streets will be filled with beggars if the authority does not step in and help those most in need with paying for the “bedroom tax”.
The Express & Star revealed yesterday that some disabled residents and foster carers in Sandwell will be given a helping hand covering the cost of the tax.
Council and social housing tenants will lose 14 to 25 per cent of their housing benefit from April 1 if they have one or more spare bedrooms. It could leave them paying hundreds of pounds extra a year in rent unless they are able to downsize.
And today, Councillor Steve Eling, cabinet member for strategic resources said the authority is in the process of looking at the list of properties affected by the bedroom tax to see who will be eligible for help.
He said: “It has got to be a case where an additional room is needed, they may need the room to store equipment, they may need a room where there is a carer, but not full time. The other one is where adaptations have been carried out to the house in order to enable that disabled person to live in it it.
Councillor Eling added: “If people don’t want streets full of beggars something is going to have to be done in these circumstances. Do they want disabled people turfed out of their houses that have been adapted for them?”
In Sandwell hundreds of borough residents with spare rooms will be unable to escape the controversial tax due to a shortage of smaller homes.
Comments for: "Bedroom tax will lead to beggars on street, claim"
Mr Walsall
Its not a tax! You need to earn money ie work to pay tax. Living of the government doesn't count.
Here again
They keep saying if you can't afford to pay take in a lodger,what parent is going to let a stranger into their home when they have got children.
How will they tell whether you have a lodger or a patner living there.
and will your housing insurance go up because of this, will you be able to leave your home, you might leave and find all your stuff has gone!
on the street ( soon )
this bedroom tax is perverse it's the conservative's who sold off all the social houses in the first place and never replaced the social housing and to make matters worse people are now allowed to sell their homes and they are allowed to rent social housing even with £100.000 or more in bank at least bromford housing Lichfield are allowing it . Why are the government allowed to get away with this there are not enough small properties to go round and in the meantime people will have to pay even if they carn't afford to do so . stop getting involved in wars which don't concern us and spend it on getting roofs over our heads . one more thing who's paying for removals and new carpets curtains etc
clive Edwards
I think the bedroom tax as they call it will cause people to go out and steal . The country at present is in a bad state , people don't know which way to turn for help .
on the street ( soon )
bring back the prefabs build them by the hundreds and they would be cheap only problem is all the immigrants would be given them first why are we the ones with viable ideas tory's run out, time they went
Rob
"If people don't want streets full of beggars........."
put them in the council chambers - with the others.
Pete
WELL SAID ROB ! Only they don't beg they just take !!
Phil H
Its not just begging that will be up, there are a lot of good people out there that will do anything to feed their families, There are also a lot of extremely prejudice people out there who do not live in the real world, who believe people on benefit are scroungers and scum, to these people think this, There for the grace of god go i. This time next year there is a very big chance this will be you, and i would bet that most of you have no problem claiming tax credits and child minding fees, these are benefits too. As for not enough smaller properties ,David Cameron already knows this, its part of the big plan to return Britain to the Victorian times where the rich sit high and the poor beg for bread. Maggie's plan part 2, only this time he is succeeding where she did not. By the way the reason people in private houses are exempt is because they already get penalized for extra bedrooms, But its worth remembering that private rent can be double that of social housing and people often have to move every 6 months when contracts end, Continue to destroy the poor and the needy in this way and sooner or later something will give. It wouldn't be the first time the people rise against the governments and it wont be the last.
Rick James
My dad is disabled and lives in an adapted house so he can get around and be somewhat independent, he was given the property he didn't ask for it he would have been far suited to an adapted bungalow, however he does have children and grandchildren visit and stay over for company.
So when my dad told me about this charge I was disgusted....
I've recently learned that if you are of Muslim religion you can claim the spare(s) rooms as prayer rooms!!!!!!
And also that if you are of Muslim religion you don't have to pay council tax if more than a certain number of people live in the property (classing it as a mosque)!!!!
So Walsall council need to review this charge scheme ASAP I'd say....
FLETCH
IF YOUR COUNCIL OR HOUSING ASSOCIATION CANNOT INSTANTLY FIND YOU A SMALL PROPERTY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY THIS
THREATEN TO TAKE THEM TO COURT FOR INFRINGING YOUR HUMAN RIGHTS THEY WILL SOON BACK OFF
shaun wilson
i am a 45yr old man and i experienced homelessness in the 80s and 90s, the general principle of people being able to downsize or upgrade to bigger or smaller homes there is an obvious need.The problem is you cant force people to do this without a viable alternative.Right we have got in this country hundreds of thousands of elderly people living longer, independant lives than ever before so after there partner spouse dies they are in a 2 or 3 bedroomed house,unless we can happily rehouse them they will be given 2 options.......1 to get deeper into debt or make financial changes elsewhere which could cause more upset or even worse.......2 take in a lodger to help make ends meet ..hope the bedroom taxers are taking this into account when they find some old person bullied or even worse dead at the hands of some psychotic young person whos head is all messed up from drink and drugs because they had to give up there developing years in housing because they couldnt afford to pay they bedroom tax either ......and ended up living in the homeless section......................but alas at least its been a cost effective way of dealing with the debt that we have somehow incurred..one dead pensioner frees up a 2 or 3 bedroomed home.....one young person ravaged by homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse leaves the homeless section to be rehoused permanently by hmp or a mental hospital ...AT A VERY EXPENSIVE COST... they ripples in the water caused by the old persons demise ......the young persons life shattered, these people are not an isolated idea somewhere in obscurity, they are real people with real family and at sometime with real friends with real hopes and dreams.....plus the cost in financial terms ..........THE GREATEST ASSET IN OUR COUNTRY IS PEOPLE PUT US TO WORK MAKE US PRODUCTIVE SO WE CAN LIVE HAPPY FRUITFUL LIVES....WE ONLY GET ONE .
felicia
disgraceful ,,diabolical... if you cross the borders in other countrys you get put in prison or killed if you cross into this country you get housing,,benafits,,, and so on ,,,,,,,,,,,,,no wonder this countrys in so much debt,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Martin Clark
Yet again the goverment is making the lower class suffer, we have jumped back in time and now have a three tier system.
1st class 2nd class and the rest of us in the third, thousands of peoples throughout our once glorious country, are being FORCED
to downsize thier homes to make way for more available larger properties. Hitler did roughtly the same in the 1930s when he evicted the Jews from thier homes and put them in the gheto so as they could have there homes for themselves.
The housing crises is the goverments own doing by allowing the massive influx of immigrents, which means the E
Mr S
Agree this was down to 10 years of Labour being in power, allwoing all these in, just so they could have the votes!!!
Martin Clark
This tax is to force people to give up thier homes move into a flat (if any available) and let the immigrants move in to your old house. After all the housing crises is not helped with the massive influx of immigrants.
mrs b
People keep blaming the immigrants but half of the unemployed did not want the jobs before they flooded in, when they were sitting comfortable on benefits and laughing at us workers . Most of em only want a job when their kids have grown and can no longer get money for em . Does anyone realise what a disabled person gets in benefits, much more than i bring home after a 40 hr weeks work and some of them have not worked a day in their lives , dont misunderstand me if the person was born with disabilities then that is expected that we look after them but the rest of the spongers who wouldnt know a days work if it bit em on the arse need to know the FREE RIDE IS OVER.
Phil H
Mrs B and others, Its worth remembering that you good people who have jobs are now classed as middle class families, on the very day that this bedroom reduction in benefits comes into force, millionaires all over Britain will get a 6 figure tax refund, You are paying for this and the bill will be far higher than the annual rent bills for social housing. I myself have a disability which gives great pain every day of my life (whats left of it) But i have found a smaller property via mutual exchange and am giving my home to a growing family, If i collect benefits for the rest of my life i would still not get back all i have paid in tax in my working life, I do not get any disabled benefits as the NEW rules put me outside this help like many others. If your in an accident tomorrow would you claim benefit, if your child was disabled, would you claim benefit to look after them, do you claim tax credits because they are next to go, On first of April social fund for grants and loans will also be abolished, how can the poor afford to move without help. Cameron knew these facts before putting this into practice, this is a direct attack on the poor to give the rich more, nothing less.Think carefully before answering because chances are to some this is going to happen, and the government don't give a hoot, unless your earning 6 figures plus.
W Moore
Phil H I completely agree with you. The benefits system is there to look after people who need the help. The problem is that there are many people on benefits that have no intention of working. They have children and expect the tax payer to foot the bill. I know this because several of my cousins left school and had kids at a young age and have never worked. They sit around all day drinking and smoking and it just isn’t on. The benefits system was put in place to assist people with genuine disabilities or need temporary help until they get back into work, but some people think it’s their right to sign on and not contribute ever. Living on benefits should not be a lifestyle choice, but sadly for many it is. I have one cousin who claims disability benefit and gets a free car every three years, yet when there is a family party his disability disappears and he’s up on the dance floor having a great time. There are people out there that genuinely need help, but there are a lot of people out there taking advantage.