Linda Cawley shares her views about the Bedroom Tax
photo by Cariad Thomas:
From April 2013, the Government is introducing new rules to restrict the amount of benefit you can claim if you are renting your home.
If you have one ‘spare’ bedroom, your housing benefit will be cut by 14% of the rent you pay every week. If you have two or more spare bedrooms, you will lose 25%.
Thousands of people who have lived in their homes and built up their lives around their communities and families will either have to pay the extra amount or move out. The local authority has the right to evict if this is not adhered to.
This is an awful outrageous attack, in my opinion, on those people who already struggle to make ends meet and, as far as I can see, Sheffield City Council is not doing anything about it. This is a Coalition decision and a policy that I thought unions and the Labour Party were there to oppose. So far I have not seen either of them do much about it.
There are pockets of resistance against the tax, and on Saturday 18th May, I was one of a few hundred people to attend a rally outside the City Hall. There were speakers from Parson Cross and other areas in Sheffield where the bedroom tax will affect most people. They were young, ordinary, working class people and I was inspired by their defiance and resolve to oppose this tax. I was also cheered to see so many faces from Burngreave there. This dreadful tax will bring misery to thousands of families. Already one grandmother was so depressed about the fact that she might be thrown out of her home that she threw herself in front of a bus and died.
I have been a long-standing Labour supporter in Sheffield but all I see at the moment is the council here implementing Cameron and Clegg’s policies. We must resist this. So the next time we have a rally, please come along and show your support. Contact your local councillors and MP and let them know how you feel about it. Remember we voted them in and we can vote them out.
Burngreave Against the Cuts
https://twitter.com/S3S4AgainstCuts
Contact details for the campaign against bedroom tax:
Email: Sheffield.benefit.justice@gmail.com
Phone: 07928 766 385