Hitting
the poorest’:
UK-wide protests against ‘Bedroom Tax’
UK-wide protests against ‘Bedroom Tax’
Thousands
have protested in 57 cities across the UK against the 'Bedroom Tax.'
Starting in April, more than 600,000 low-income Britons will either
lose housing benefits or be forced to move out if their residence has
a spare room.
16
March, 2013
According
to the new law, tenants of working age who receive housing support
will lose 14 percent of their benefits if they have one spare room,
and 25 percent if they have more than one. Critics, who dubbed the
measure the 'Bedroom Tax,' have argued that the definition of 'spare'
is narrow and contentious.
“The
government is saying they won’t have a tax on big mansions, but
they are having a bedroom tax on the poorest people in the country,”
MP Helen Goodman told RT.
Campaigners
gathered across Britain to rail against the law, which they say
targets the most vulnerable.
"This
is a cruel policy that primarily hits single parents, and the adult
disabled,” Huffington Post
reported, quoting the protest's national organizer, Eoin Clarke.
“Even children deemed disabled but not 'severely' so, are
affected. Carers, the terminally ill, battered wives and husbands are
all affected.”
The
'Bedroom Tax' is expected to affect 660,000 people when it is enacted
next month.
RT
spoke with Brian Ryder, who suffers from osteoporosis and cannot
work, and is one of thousands who will find themselves in a Catch-22
next month. Under the new law, Ryder will lose £50 of his housing
benefits every month – money he needs for food and heating.
Otherwise, he would have to move out of the apartment where he has
been living for 14 years. He has asked to be provided with a smaller
apartment, but was told that none were available.
“People
are being told they should move to a smaller flat, but in my
constituency there are fewer than 100 places people could move to and
that’s fairly typical across the country as a whole,”
Goodman said.
The
government has argued the proposal is “an excellent
policy which will lead to more efficient use of taxpayer-subsidized
housing.”
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