At a time when precise, hard details are hard to come by, as our local and national politicians duck and dive around issues, here’s two stats:
- And according to the government’s own assessment, the Bedroom Tax will cost 80,000 Londoners an average £1,092 a year.
The Bedroom Tax is the part of Conservative-led government’s welfare changes, aimed at cutting the amount of benefit that people can get if they are considered to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home. It is introduced in April.
Nationally, the Bedroom Tax will hit 660,000 households, two-thirds of them home to someone with a disability.
Here’s some more facts: the National Housing Federation figures show 1,061 people in Croydon North, 951 in Croydon Central and 896 in Croydon South will be hit by the Bedroom Tax.
Croydon North’s Labour MP, Steve Reed, unsurprisingly, condemned the proposals. “David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax will hammer hard-pressed Croydon families who are already struggling to make ends meet.
“The Bedroom Tax could actually risk costing local tax-payers a fortune in higher private rents and covering the cost of driving people out of their homes.
“Two-thirds of the households hit are home to someone with a disability, and the families of soldiers and foster parents will also be hit. Yet at the same time prisoners get off and millionaires are getting a massive tax cut. How can that be right?” Reed asked.
Liam Byrne, Labour’s shadow work and pensions spokesman, described the measures as a “shambles”, as more than 600,000 armed forces families, disabled people and foster carers could face added bills of hundreds of pounds from next month, yet at the same time, 13,000 millionaires will receive tax cuts of £100,000.
“The plan is such a shambles that someone who’s been to prison on a short sentence won’t have to pay,” Byrne said of the Bedroom Tax. “How unfair is that?
“Millionaires and prisoners are looked after but vulnerable people, carers and armed forces families get hit.”
- Andrew Fisher: Gavin Barwell, benefits and a whole load of old b…
- Steve Reed MP: Croydon people feel forgotten and abandoned
- Inside Croydon: For comment and analysis about Croydon, from inside Croydon – 253,473 page views Sep 2012-Feb 2013
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Related articles
- The great bedroom tax farce: Just 50 one-bed homes available for 7,000 hit in one city (mirror.co.uk)
- ‘Bedroom tax’ will hit single parents and disabled people hardest (guardian.co.uk)