Bedroom tax hits 540 of our poorest households

AT the moment 540 households in Salisbury and south Wiltshire are struggling with the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’.That means they have had their housing benefit reduced because their homes have more bedrooms than the government deems necessary, and they are supposed to move somewhere smaller.The number of these households including someone who receives Disability Living Allowance is 215.
This is a shameful state of affairs. Where are they supposed to go?
Finding one and two-bedroomed homes that people on benefits can afford – let alone ones that are suitable for people with disabilities - is not easy in our private rental market.
Many landlords don’t want to know, because since the government changed the way housing benefit is paid, it has become easier for tenants to run up arrears. Also, mortgage providers and insurers often insist on tenants being in work.
What about council or housing association properties, then?
Well, there simply aren’t enough.
Wiltshire Council, which gave me all these figures in response to a Freedom of Information request, said that between last April, when the bedroom tax took effect, and the end of the year, 768 local households had their benefit cut.
Yet in the three-month period from July to September, to take an example, only 100 smaller homes became available for letting in our part of the county.
That means hundreds of people were, and still are, effectively being fined for their inability to move.
You can’t blame the council. Wiltshire has been trying to set a rule that 40% of all big new developments should be affordable homes. That could make a big difference over time. But a government-appointed inspector has ruled that the target is too tough on builders and has demanded a rethink.
I recently watched a short film on YouTube, released last autumn, called Friary Voices. It’s about life in the city centre estate.
One disabled resident tells the camera crew that she has two spare rooms and has done her utmost to find a smaller ground floor flat, but with no luck. Around her are bags and boxes packed with her belongings. Because of the bedroom tax, she says, her situation is “getting quite desperate”.
I do hope she has found somewhere by now.
This is an ugly, vengeful tax that can only help to destroy communities.
If you want to force people out of their homes to make room for others, you’ve got to give them somewhere to go.