{"id":433,"date":"2013-06-27T23:57:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T23:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=433"},"modified":"2017-08-16T00:03:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T00:03:58","slug":"anti-bedroom-tax-groups-demand-justice-for-margaret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=433","title":{"rendered":"Anti bedroom tax groups demand justice for Margaret"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edinburgh Council tenant Margaret has been denied an exemption for bedroom tax by City of Edinburgh Council despite being clearly entitled – she has overnight carers stay every night.\u00a0 She wrote to the CEC as early as February applying for an exemption.\u00a0 Instead of granting the exemption the Council have been phoning her up threatening she could be evicted if she didn’t pay her rent.\u00a0 This is clearly against the Council policy of no evictions for bedroom tax arrears.\u00a0 The stress of this situation has now led to Margaret giving up her tenancy, as she was becoming very ill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Muirhouse and Pilton anti bedroom tax groups called for people to attend Councillor Cammy Day’s surgery at Muirhouse Library on 17 June to support Margaret and other tenants with bedroom tax problems.\u00a0\u00a0 Around 20 people turned up at short notice, an excellent show of solidarity.\u00a0 This followed ten people accompanying Margaret to the Councillor’s surgery on 3 June.\u00a0 People are appalled at her unjust treatment by the Council over the Bedroom Tax.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a good turnout shows the strength of feeling against the bedroom tax, now widely regarded as a very unjust cut in housing benefits.\u00a0 The Lothian and Scottish Federations of anti bedroom tax groups are pledged to defend the homes of all tenants facing harassment or threats of eviction from their landlords.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillor Day, who is the leading Councillor for Housing, has agreed to meet Margaret to discuss her treatment.\u00a0 Margaret is demanding that the Council apologise and pay compensation for wrongly denying her a Bedroom Tax exemption and for <\/span>harassing<\/span> her to pay rent which she never owed.\u00a0 Councillor Day has admitted Margaret’s treatment by the Council was \u201cunacceptable\u201d and we are asking the Councillor to support her demand for compensation.<\/span>
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\nRead on for a detailed report of the delegation…<\/span><\/p>\n

APPALLING TREATMENT<\/span><\/p>\n

Margaret says the stress of the situation led her Doctor\u00a0 to advise her to give up her council tenancy, or she could have a heart attack or stroke.\u00a0 Margaret has serious disabilities and has overnight carers stay overnight so should have had an automatic exemption.\u00a0 Councillor Day has still not given an explanation why Margaret was denied an exemption and suffered such appalling treatment at the hands of the Council.\u00a0 Margaret says she has not paid the bedroom tax but she is still waiting to receive a letter from the Council granting her exemption.<\/span><\/p>\n

We pressed Councillor Day to tell us if the Council\u00a0 had proper assessment procedures for Bedroom Tax exemptions to ensure no more people with disabilities suffered harassment like Margaret.\u00a0 Margaret receives Disability Living Allowance highest rate so it should have been clear she was very probably exempt.\u00a0 He stated that the system wasn’t working properly with \u201cpoor communication\u201d between the relevant Council Departments.\u00a0\u00a0 He admitted that he wasn’t sure if the Council had proper assessment procedures but he would find out and report back to us.
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\nCOUNCIL HARASSMENT MUST STOP<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We insisted to Councillor Day that he had to make sure Council officials stopped making harassing phone calls to tenants threatening they could be evicted \u2013the officials had to follow the Council \u201cno evictions\u201dpolicy.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also pressed the cases of three other local residents, who were suffering bedroom tax cuts and, in two cases, their housing benefits had been stopped altogether.\u00a0 Since our group saw the Councillor a fortnight ago one resident, Sally, had had their main housing benefits restored, which is a positive outcome to our action.\u00a0 But another resident, Vince, is still totally deprived of housing benefit, for no good reason. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s more local residents Alice and Sally, suffering a cut of approximately \u00a39 and \u00a314 per week because of the bedroom tax, have only been paid around \u00a35 per week in Discretionary Housing Payment, leaving a substantial shortfall which they can’t afford.\u00a0 The Councillor promised to make sure Vince had his benefits restored and to support Alice and Sally in being paid full Discretionary Housing Payment, agreeing it was an issue of concern if people in need were not being paid full DHP.<\/span><\/p>\n

INCREASE THE FUND<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We also pressed the Councillor to vote for the Council to increase its Fund for Discretionary Housing Payments when it discusses the issue at the Committee meeting on Thursday 27 June.\u00a0 The last vote on this issue saw Councillor Day and his Labour colleagues vote with the Tories and Lib Dems to defeat the Green Party motion to increase the fund.\u00a0 Anti bedroom tax campaigners will present a petition and demonstrate at the Council that morning for the Fund to be increased to meet the widespread need.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Councillor replied to our question raised a fortnight earlier, stating that the Council was indeed taking Disability Living Allowance into account as income when calculating entitlement to DHP \u2013but he agreed with us that this was wrong and he was pressing for this to be changed so that DLA, paid to meet costs incurred by serious disabilities, was disregarded.<\/span><\/p>\n

We asked when a start would be made on the much-needed social housing in Muirhouse, much of which resembles a bomb-site after massive demolitions, but virtually no re-building.\u00a0 Councillor Day claimed construction at the site opposite Craigroyston School would start on 15 July, and on other sites by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, we made it clear to the Councillor that it was unacceptable that he does not have facilities to meet with groups at his surgeries \u2013increasingly people are realising the strength of the community lies in people supporting each other.\u00a0 No longer are we prepared to be disregarded as isolated individuals, we will be meeting those in positions of authority as a group to insist they do what is right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Muirhouse anti bedroom tax group
\nContact\/ Info 07910 845570\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0776 3204906 (both Virgin)\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

muirhouseresidents@hotmail.com<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/muirhouseresidents.co.uk\/bedroom-tax\/\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

info@northedinburghfightsback.org.uk<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

www.northedinburghfightsback.org.uk<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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