I could not believe what I was hearing on the
B.B.C. Radio Five Live Victoria Derbyshire morning programme in a
discussion with Lord Freud and Radio Five listeners about the imminent new Under
Occupancy Act, otherwise infamously known as the Bedroom Tax.
This tax comes into effect on Monday 1st April 2013.
The Bedroom Tax is where people who have a
spare bedroom and are on a benefit will have their housing benefit cut.
Lord Freud was asked specific questions by
listeners regarding how the tax would affect them.
One had a son in the army and wanted to keep
his bedroom for when the son was on leave so he felt he had a home to come back
to. Another had separated from his wife and the 3 children stayed with him at
the weekend, the school holidays and at other times. Another had
disabilities that affected his breathing and he had to use an oxygen tank and
other apparatus to help him breathe. He had to sleep with his head raised on
the bed so he slept in a separate room from his wife so they could both sleep
without him disturbing her from the noise of the oxygen and his sleeping
position in the bed. Another had a daughter going to university.
Lord Freud did not answer the specific
questions asked by people on the phone but choose to give the bog standard
Government answer such as “difficult times, times of austerity” we need to
reform the system to stop the scroungers, [my words], living
in luxury (?) with too many rooms that they don’t need.
Here is the solution that Lord Freud gave to
the tenants:
To the father who has his children stay at
the weekends and various other nights Lord Freud said: “He should move to a one
bedroom house then buy a sofa bed so the 3 children could sleep in the living
room.”
To the parents of the student at university
he said; “Why don’t you take in a lodger.” So what does the daughter do when
she returns home for a weekend visit and during the holidays? Sleep with the
lodger? Obviously he is not aware that as a student living in student
accommodation it is classed as temporary accommodation. The man with breathing
and other medical problems he ignored.
It beggars belief that this Lord of the
realm, who is the Prime Minister David Cameron’s Under Secretary of State
(Lords) for the Department of Work and Pensions, who between January 2008 and
February 2009 acted as an advisor on welfare reform to the U.K. government, is
ignorant of the tenancy law; that he does not know that under the tenancy
agreement between a tenant and the local council or housing association it is illegal
to sublet any part of the accommodation. Yet here he is happily telling people
to break the conditions of their tenancy agreement.
Apart from Lord Freud’s lack of knowledge
regarding tenancy agreements, I feel it shows the arrogance of members of the
Tory party to tell people to say “It is alright, just take in a lodger”.
Problem solved, easy peasy.
Say it did happen. First of all it would lead
to complications on any welfare payment they receive whether they are working
or not. Probably any welfare benefit they get would be cut or stopped
including their rent and council tax payments. Would the tax man have interest
in this extra income?
What about insurance cover? Many
insurance companies will not insure you or the house if you have a lodger, or
the premium is very expensive. What happens when the offspring comes home from
University and the Army? Do they sleep in the living room or the bathroom? Do
you want a lodger in your house using all the facilities?
This is rich coming from a man who owns two
large houses. One, a country mansion in Kent, which is believed to be one of
the oldest in England, has eight bedrooms. The other is a £1.9 million four
bedroom house in Highgate, London that he shares with his wife. So that is a
total of 12 bedrooms for two people which of eight are only used at weekends,
holidays or for entertaining on special occasions.
What a hypocrite Lord Freud is. A
man who owns two homes with twelve bedrooms for two people is plunging over
100,000 people into poverty, causing them extreme anxiety and leading to their
illnesses becoming acute.
Is this not a form of “ethnic cleansing,”
this time done on a socio-economic scale rather than a race or religious
doctrine?
Just to show this multi-millionaire’s
arrogance and lack of feeling for the working class communities, vulnerable and
people with mental or physical problems, Lord Freud stated in an
interview with The House magazine, "We've got the circumstances now
where... people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks -
they've got least to lose."
McTaggart
