For those seeking to legally challenge the Bedroom Tax and caps on benefits that will force tens of thousands of people to kove in the UK this report from the FT this morning looks like good news:
Campaigners in Spain hailed a rare legal victory over the country's banks and government when Europe's highest court struck down a draconian foreclosure law that had come to symbolise the brutal fallout from the eurozone's debt crisis.
The decision by the European Court of Justice will give Spanish courts new powers to delay or freeze the eviction of home buyers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. It will add to rising public pressure on the government in Madrid to change a tough mortgage regime that has allowed banks to evict tens of thousands of struggling homeowners.
If homeowners in debt arrears who know that this gives the right to forfeiture can't be evicted in Spain what right has our government got to evict because of arbitrary rules on which room a person sleeps in?
I am sure there are many nuances to this, but the need for legal challenges to what is happening is urgent and I warmly applaud those making them.
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Tens of thousands of people won’t be moving as there aren’t places for them to move to. This point was raised in the Lords debate on the bedroom tax at least part of which I watched. No, the point is to take money away from poor people and out of the economy altogether, which will of course have the effect of further destabilising it.
I fear you’re right
Homelessness is going to skyrocket
Where would you cut HMG spending then?
Why would I cut?
But the bedroom tax does not apply to home owners in the UK, it applies to those renting via benefits, correct?
I know that
But eviction applies in both cases
Is it really that hard to follow?
But the reduction in council tax benefit apply to both.
Not paying rent can lead, eventually, to eviction.
Not paying council tax leads to court, bailiffs and grief VERY rapidly.
The amount to be found to make-up the reduction in this town (libdem) is about 30 quid a month.
It is clear that this policy has been so badly framed and incompetently drawn up that it is a desperate move to ideologically undermine the concept of social housing. Social Housing was set up about a hundred years ago by the Liberal(!) Government of the day. This Government has been ‘grooming’ the populace to accept these reforms by continually feeding misinformation about benefit claimants, vilifying them as ‘scroungers’ and living the ‘life of Riley’ on often meager amounts of money. I am at present one of those involved in a legal challenge. It will be hard because legal aid is almost impossible to get when you have no money. This Government wants to take us back to the Poor law and the Workhouse. We must not let them do this.
All I can say is thank you and good luck
I am a disabled pensioner my wife as suffered from mental illness sice her 20s she is now comming up to 56 she trys to look after me even though it isn’t easy for her we were offered a one bedroom council bungalow around for years ago as it wasn’t adapted for my needs we had the work done out of our own pocket a little later down the line we started getting terrible damp problems caused by no membranes in the floors and the fact it hadn’t been lived in properly for seven years we had to get a no win no fee solicitor as the council would not do anything eventually when they admitted liabilty we were offered a two bedroom new build dorma bungalow and very little compensation as it had a new wet room and kitchen e.c.t the like which we put in to there one bedroom property. i am not in the best of health and we now find if my wife is left on her own she will have to pay the bedroom tax and 25 per cent rates which all together will come to £ 23 a week we are both worried sick our money as gone as we put it into the last propery the council won’t listen and understand how unfair it all is our m.p as tryed to talk to them as he says he thinks we have a special case but to no avail my wifes case worker as even wrote a letter for my wife as she is also concerned how all this worry is affecting my wife we feel we couldn’t afford to move again our money is tied up in this place i am so worried for my wife i really thought i had protected her future when we took the one bedroom and we would still be there if it hadn’t been condemed i wish there was someone who could help us fight this and yes i understand that there are people out there who this will hit sooner than my wife i wish them luck in there fight and wish David Cameron would see what he is doing to people i asked my m.p to talk to him in parliment but he just says because it doe’s not affect my wife yet D avid Cameron won’t listen. Best Wishes. Keith
Keith
You describe cowardly politicians
You personify courage
Thanks and good luck
Richard
http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2013-03-15-Council-no-tenant-to-be-evicted-over-bedroom-tax
Keith’s comments typify the fear and anxiety that many are confronting. My M.P. Goeffrey Clifton-Brown is a wealthy land and property owner (his house is worth 2.5 million) supports the bedroom tax and won’t even respond to my queries about its lack of proportionality. As an M.P. he used mortgage-flipping techniques to get the tax payer to subsidise his mortgage and claimed food and laundry money for a period of time. Where is the spirit of public service here and concern for the taxpayer and the public purse? One can only feel disgust and shock at how so many wealthy people have no moral compass and are the true shirkers and dodgers.
This awful policy needs a good legal brain to challenge across all areas. I am involved in the ‘We are Spartacus’ legal challenge on behalf of disabled people using Article 8 of the ECHR and other laws on Equality Duty. However I still think there’s scope for a challenge on the basis that this is effectively a DOUBLE benefit cut. First from the housing benefit ( 14 or 25%) but then that amount, whether £14 or as much as £34 (in my own case) will have to be docked AGAIN from subsistence benefits under threat of arrears and homelessness. So whilst the Gov has legislated for a cut in HB they have not altered the law which states that your other benefits are inalienable and you need a certain amount to live on. I’m trying to find someone to help me investigate this further. Any ideas please email suemccafferty@live.co.uk
The damage that this unfair evil Bedroom tax levy will cause is devastating –
So many people will be affected in so many ways!
Separated Parents who share extended periods of custody often for more than one child, and varying ages and sexes – they can’t all sleep together on a sofa as one unsympathetic person suggested.
Disabled people will suffer enormously, if they have to move due to the financial pressures of this, they may loose the help and support they get from helpful neigbours, friends or family living close by. Their home is often their sanctuary they have often lived there for many many years, its been adapted to suit there needs, both formally and customised by themselves to make life as comfortable and safe for them. For blind persons it would be especially difficult to move, they would need help to learn new routes putting extra pressure on Bind Charities and leaving them housebound in the meantime. Some older blind people with other difficulties might find learning new routes almost impossible, not to mention feeling totally lost and disorientated in their new properties.
Many disabled people need extra space for special equipment, supplies or to sleep separately from their partners for health reasons.
Families with children settled in schools may have to change them into different schools during crucial times in their education.
Grandparents (who are not over state pension age) who currently have grandchildren to stay, and or, other family members staying with them periodically . Families so often live great distances away nowadays, and this is the only way to keep these relationship’s alive and provide the reassuring stability to all the generations within the family unit.
The list goes on and on – This ill thought out punishing Tax will bring misery, hardship and heart breaking results – its inhumane and cruel to the extreme!
I forgot to add that many are also working people, but either on the laughable minimum wage, or through no fault of their own can’t work enough hours to get off benefits. This might be due to their employers not being able to give them additional hours. Or they are not able to work any more because of their caring duties for children or for sick, or elderly relatives.
There really is such a wide variety of circumstances, and relatively few people are undeserving of their benefits or of their so called spare bedrooms.
The fabric of our caring society is being eroded, people who are lucky enough not to be on benefits, are being hood winked into believing the propaganda that all benefit receivers are scroungers and shirkers,the truth is far different – There is a relatively low percentage in this category – The vast majority are genuine people, with genuine reasons and hardships that forces them to be dependent on benefits. People who condemn them and believe the various penalties this Government is implementing forget that they too could fall on hard times one day through illness, disablement or redundancy – They might then realise the realities of living on benefits and how these defamatory terms make genuine unfortunate people feel!
I attended and spoke to a rally in Birmingham a few days ago demonstrating against these cuts. The sad thing is that this Government has tried to create a culture where anyone on benefits is made to look like a social pariah. They have done this by setting very low paid working people against those not working through illness or not being able to find a job. It is a well known technique of deflecting attention from ‘real’ causes (banks, tax avoidance, M.P.’s expenses, inequitable remunerations at the top, low taxes for super-rich)to create scapegoating of the vulnerable. This is a well known technique used by some of the most appalling regimes in recent history. It is despicable and beyond disgust. I hope the British people are awake enough o see this and fight it.
Perhaps a definitive list of ‘real causes’ should be assembled together with explanatory notes for the uninitiated. I’d list a) big companies who don’t pay taxes, b) the banking system itself being a scam to seed us with credit then the banks can reap real spendable money from our efforts, and c) those anonymous individuals who own millions of acres of British countryside yet pay no taxes who we support entirely through our taxes as they get billions in EU grants and subsidies. Just as we pay housing benefit for the less fortunate, we pay land and farming rents to the supremely fortunate. The difference is we don’t know about it. It’s not mentioned inthe media. There’s only the first lot gets into the national dialogue and that’s largely thanks to Richard and others. There’s no discussion of these other very real issues as the perpetrators are at the very heart of the British establishment. It’s time we changed that.
I so agree with all you say here Simon its a cunning and despicable ploy!
Hello I am a full time career for my disabled daughter who has cerebral palsy and my wife who has bipolar.
My benefits letter states “this is the amount the law says you need to live on”
I think this comes from the welfare and benefits law of 1978? I used this law to claim back bank charges saying that the bank could not take charges from my benefit because the law said that was the minimum amount I needed to live on.
My question is : if the benefit I receive is the amount the law says I need to live on then is it lawful for them to then take some back as a tax?…
I may be totally wrong in my thinking but its just an idea and perhaps someone could clarify the law on this because when they take money for the bedroom tax I will not have the amount the law says I need to live on!
I save the country a huge amount of money by caring for my wife and daughter full time so why should I , and many others like me, be penalised.
I would love to work but its just not possible.
I would welcome your comments
Adrian
Adrian
I am not an expert – but I hope those taking these cases use such examples
They seem compelling
I can only offer sympathy and support
Best
Richard
I have been working with a lawyer at Liberty (Human Rights lawyers) and a case is going forward against the DWP. Adrian’s point is a very interesting one and overlaps with issues the lawyer at Liberty has pinpointed. Any cut in housing benefit means that the extra money has to come out of one’s basic living allowance. This could be part of a legal case. Also, Human Rights legislation provides legal arguments against the State passing legislation which lacks proportionality in relation to interfering with a person’s right to a family life. I would advise anyone caught up in this dreadful and pernicious business to write to Liberty or an organisation called Public Interest Lawyers based in Birmingham. They both have websites where you can get the address. Keep letters flowing to M.P’s, Housing benefit offices,councilors.
and then there’s this http://gwenhwyfaer.posterous.com/reinstatement which interested parties should copy to somewhere as Posterous itself, the hosting platform, is shutting down soon and I don’t know where this blog will move to, if at all.