Quite a bit of press today; letter in Echo & Western Mail (Morning Star tomorrow); The injustice of the bedroom tax Anniversaries can provide occasion for reflection and honest reconsideration. During its first, and hopefully, final year, the bedroom tax has become a byword for apparent incompetence and clear injustice. Attacked in the media, attracting censure from the United Nations and unravelling in the courts, yesterday’s withdrawal of Liberal Democrat support demonstrates just how toxic it has become. During the past year, Cardiff & South Wales Against the Bedroom Tax has demonstrated how the so-called “spare room subsidy” punishes the disabled and most vulnerable and has actually forced some Welsh tenants below the UN absolute poverty threshold. Now, as an increasing tide of tenants appeal and win, and hard-pushed Welsh local authorities become ever more jaded in their attempts to administer this discredited measure, only someone unable or unwilling to face the facts would be persuaded by the attempts to support it. The truth is straightforward. The bedroom tax is misguided and it punishes the most financially vulnerable whilst forcing the social housing sector into crisis. In Ely, Gurnos, Rumney and a hundred other estates, empty homes speak to the vandalism done to families and communities. Meanwhile, those who have not yet appealed are forced to pay money that they do not have or else move to properties which do not yet exist. For this reason, tenants, MPs, clergy, Assembly Members and workers in the sector will be marching and rallying tomorrow at Cardiff City Hall at 1pm. We urge you to join us and, as has been achieved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, fight for the end of the bedroom tax in Wales. Meanwhile, if you are affected by the bedroom tax, please call Jamie on 07717779819 to see if you can appeal. Jamie Insole & Adam Johannes – Cardiff & South Wales Against the Bedroom Tax The Rt Rev John Davies – Bishop of Swansea & Brecon Huw Irrancca Davies MP Joycelyn Davies AM Mick Antoniw AM Bethan Jenkins AM Steve Clarke – Welsh Tenants
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 10:36:18 +0000
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