“I know you’ve lived here all your life and never got into trouble, but we don’t want you here anymore so here’s a few thousand quid for you and your family to bugger off and not come back”.

Russia? Syria? China? No, this is the reality of Welfare “Reform” in Britain in 2013. A whole new class of refugees forced into a perpetual revolving door of financial inducements to move on, and as there are some 400 Council’s that’s a lot of travelling. It’s a vision which will take as back 100 years, even the workhouse kept people in their own locality, welfare reform just gives them one way ticket to nowhere.

Most galling of all we see that Labour Councils are the first to implement this Tory agenda – with Brent offering £6,500 : http://www.lgcplus.com/exclusive-benefit-claimants-offered-6500-to-move-out/5055426.article?blocktitle=Latest-Local-Government-News&contentID=2249

It makes no economic or social sense, in the short term the family and human costs will be massive, in the long term they will break our society. It is the single biggest issue of the moment and the Green voice must be heard.

Campaigning for justice

I've written before about the sheer cruelly of the welfare reform act and its pleasing to see that the Campaign to Defend Council Housing are now co-ordinating a national campaign of opposition. There also a group called Councillors against cuts http://councillorsagainstcuts.org/  which I have supported.

National Campaign for Benefit Justice

Tenants, Disabled People Against Cuts and other campaigners are linking up in a national campaign against attacks on Housing and other Benefits. 40 people from 31 campaigns, tenants and trade union groups met on 19 Jan in London and agreed to build an umbrella campaign to oppose attacks on the poor and to fight for benefit justice. The PCS trade union, with members in Job Centres and Benefit offices, and Unite trade union are among those backing a united campaign.A 7,500-strong facebook group Bedroom Tax...think its unfair...join the fight here were represented, along with pensioner, women's and unemployed groups. Initial plans include a protest in February and a Benefit Justice summit and further protests in March, one month before further devastating benefit cuts including the 'Bedroom Tax' hit in April 2013.The Campaign for Benefit Justice agreed this statement: Cuts in benefits are an unjust attack on the poor. Cuts concentrated on Housing Benefit are already breaking up families, communities and support networks. They will mean poverty, debt and evictions. We oppose all cuts in benefits and tax credits. We did not cause the banking and economic crisis and will not be scapegoated to pay for it. We reject false divisions and stigmatisation of people who are low-paid or unpaid. We will join with local and national campaigns including disabled peoples, tenants, unemployed workers, trade unions, students, pensioner, single mothers and others to oppose benefit cuts. We will support and link up local campaigns. We oppose all evictions and legal action against those hit by benefit cuts and support all actions taken in defence. Sign up to support the Campaign and statement by emailing info@defendcouncilhousing.org.uk As a Children's Social Worker I have already made a number of presentation about the impact of these changes on children and if anyone wants a copy please email me.

Amazed, astonished and baffled

All term used by Cllr Macgregor (Labour) of Bolsover DC in the six press releases issued last year regarding benefit fraud (the last one being on the 16^th January 2013). Cameron and Osborne must be delighted that by making sure the local headlines are full of terms like “benefit cheats” it is so much easier for him and his chums to slash welfare spending on “scroungers” whilst handing out tax cuts to millionaires.

The truth as Bolsover Councillors (should) know is that for every £1 lost in benefit fraud £17 goes unclaimed because people are too frightened to claim them. For comparison another £15 is lost in tax fraud and £70 in tax avoidance). But during the year not a single press release was issued to encourage benefit take-up let alone show a comparison with tax fraud.

So why is Cllr Macgregor all of a dither over this? Is it because in 2001 it was reported in the Guardian that he was “being investigated by fraud squad officers in Derbyshire over allegations that he used his position as head of a regeneration trust in a rundown mining area to line his own pocket”? The article went on to say “further investigations revealed that on numerous occasions between 1997 and last year, Mr MacGregor's separate expenses for representing Bolsover district council and the regeneration trust showed him to be in different parts of the country at the same time”, and that as a result he along what another person “agreed to pay £5,000 each and legal costs of £16,000 to Creswell parish council”. See: http//www.guardian.co.uk/society/2001/may/04/regeneration.communities

What is amazing, astonishing and baffling is that Councillor Macgregor still has a seat on Bolsover DC at all let alone that he has been given a Cabinet position for Corporate Efficiencies (some irony here methinks). It would be nice if he showed some empathy for those on the sharp end of the Tory cuts, but instead he, along with his colleagues, are quite content to continue to rake in the highest basic allowances of any District Councillors in the Country.

When you live in a glass house and continue to throw stones and denigrate others it is not surprising that you end up amazed, astonished and baffled.

Waking up to the bedroom tax

It's taking a little longer to let tenants know in Bolsover, but word is getting round that from April 2013 there will be some dramatic, and highly damaging, changes for Council tenants on housing benefit.

Across the country a few of us are trying to stand up for the victims of this draconian policy. In spite of what the coalition says the victims will be the children not the parents. However Councils can do something and its important they do what they can. Here's a piece setting out some of the issues and our demands - it's work in progress so let me know if you have anything to add:

 

The bedroom tax will hurt our children.

In April some 660,000 families living in Council or housing association houses and claiming housing benefit will have that benefit cut if they are deemed to have too many bedrooms. Of course the politicians who voted for this don’t just have an extra few bedrooms, they get a whole flat in London paid for by the tax-payer, but that’s another story.  Forcing families into smaller properties will ruin the life prospects of many children and increase the risks to them it is both an inequitable and a dangerous development. Here are just some of the consequences:

·         Children of different sexes under 10 and the same sex under 16 are expected to share a room. However there is no definition or allowance given for the size of that bedroom. It means a house with a tiny single bedroom and one double bedroom would be “big enough” for a couple with two daughters aged 15 and 8, whilst next door a couple with just one toddler won’t have their benefit cut even if they have two  double bedrooms.

·         Where parents have shared responsibilities for a child only the one that gets the child benefit can count that child toward their bedroom entitlement. When the child visits he or she will have to sleep on the sofa, and if there’s more the one child they had better buy a tent.

·         Bizarrely foster children don’t count in the calculation of the number of bedrooms the family needs even though Council invariably require each foster child to have their own bedrooms. On the other hand if you have a lodger you will be entitled to an extra bedroom!

·         There’s no chance of tenants affected by these change being able to downsize, there simply isn’t enough smaller social housing units available. Instead they will be encouraged to take a lodger. Here’s what the case review on baby P said about lodgers “One of the most dangerous of these situations is where an anti-social man who is unrelated to the children joins the household” (Para 2.7.8). Is it worth the risk?  

·         The shortage of adapted properties means that families with disabled members frequently have to take whatever they are offered. However if it has more bedrooms than they are assessed as needing the will lose benefit, even if there is no other property available. There is no exemption for the disabled.

·         The proposals are inherently anti-family. A couple with two children under 10 in a three bedroom house will lose benefits, but their neighbour who may be a single parent  with two children of the same age and a “lodger” won’t. Indeed the lodger can pay up to £20 a week without any loss of benefit. What reason is there for couples to stay together if thye are better off living apart?

·         Councils who have introduced pro-family allocation policies like not placing young children in high rise blocks will find it impossible to maintain them in the face of the demand from tenats for down-sizing.

·         Because the regulations take no account of local housing need they will result in larger social house becoming unlettable in areas such as Northern Ireland and parts of North England where demand is low.

What can be done?

The Coalition Government have forced this through, over-turning every amendment made by the Lords. However Councils and Housing Associations can act to protect children from the most dangerous elements of this dreadful policy and we are calling on them to sign the following pledge:

 

1.   To collect data on the impact of these proposals on the lives of children in their area.

2.   To give the highest priority possible to families who need to move houses as a result of these measures.

3.   To review the Councils own assessment of the number of bedrooms in each property and to refuse to recognise as a bedroom any room below 6.5 sq metres (the minimum bedroom size for a multi-occupied house)

4.   Not to evict any tenant who gets into rent arrears as a direct result of this legislation.

5.   In recognition of the Baby P serious case review to fund and execute CRB checks on prospective lodgers for any family affected by these regulations.

6.   To consider using the pupil premium of £600 per head to enable families losing benefit to pay for an extra bedroom to be kept so that children have somewhere quiet to do their homework.

The Pain is only just beginning

It's like the calm before the storm. But although it's not getting a lot of news coverage the Welfare Reform proposal will start to bite from 1st April and Councils like Bolsover need to start taking action now if their fine words about protecting communities are to be realised in practice.

Here's a question I've tabled for the Council meeting next Wednesday when we also have a lobby in opposition to the Morrisons scheme:

"In just 8 months time the most devastating attack on the poorest people in our lifetime will begin when social housing tenants, deemed to be under-occupying, will have their housing benefits cut as the Coalition government takes £2bn in a year from those on Housing Benefit to fund its tax cuts for the rich.

1.       What is Bolsover Council doing now to identify and assist its tenant who, through no fault of their own, will find they need to move to a smaller property?

2.       Have the Council told them what is happening?

3.       Will these tenants be given top priority banding under the letting system? and

4.       Having saved over £1m in borrowing costs this year will the Council be willing to offer them some financial assistance to meet some of the costs of moving?"