0796 1177889
To MPs and Peers
THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT OF ALL CAPS, CUTS AND COUNCIL TAX UNFAIR AND UNECONOMIC.
Mental
and physical illness inevitably follow debt, eviction, hunger and cold
homes; they costs taxpayer billions in the NHS, the schools and the
wider economy.
INTRODUCTION
It is the cumulative impact of caps, cuts and
council tax on benefit incomes, already below the poverty line, which is
causing debt, eviction, debt, hunger and cold homes. Large families are
very badly hit by the overall benefit cap when all annual increases are
frozen at 1%, the council tax has to be paid sometimes with court and
bailiffs' enforcement costs of well over £200 added to arrears, while
the costs of food, fuel, clothes transport and other necessities
escalate. This leads to eviction overcrowded temporary accommodation,
and uprooting from extended families.
The caps, cuts and council tax made me very angry when I met a
single mother with seven children who is now expected to pay £282 rent
out of her £500 benefit cap leaving £218 to cover council tax and
everything else. According to research at the University of York for the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Centre for Research in Social Policy food
alone should cost that family £211 a week to maintain a healthy diet.
No one told that mother, say 14 years ago, that if she had a large
family she and her children would be made destitute by the State in
2013. Hitting them hard now is deeply unfair. Each child is a precious
bundle of life whose income from the State should provide food, warmth,
clothes other necessities and a decent affordable home with their mother
when all else fails, so providing a secure base for the children's
education and for the parents to look for work; that's what Taxpayers
Against Poverty stands for.
CASE HISTORIES POSTED ON TAXPAYERS AGAINST POVERTY FACEBOOK BLOG.
CUMULATIVE
IMPACT OF BEDROOM TAX, COUNCIL TAX AND 1% FREEZE ON INCREASES OF ALL
BENEFITS IS PARTICULARLY DISASTROUS FOR NEWLY UNEMPLOYED WITH MANY YEARS
EMPLOYMENT AND TAXPAYING BEHIND THEM.
A HARD WORKING 60 YEAR OLD TAXPAYER UNEMPLOYED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 43 YEARS.
CASE A.
.
"am 60 now lost my job due to ill health, first time on benefits(so
******** horrible, treated like a scrounger) and I've paid into the
system for 43 years and I get treated as a sponger..being. single and
having an extra bedroom I have benefit reductions on my £71.70p leaving
me with about £57 to pay all my bills, gas, electric, water, food. I
have now not paid my extra rent and council tax for 1 week now. Thank
you Tories and liberals for demoralising me......my next move is the
streets to beg?...and then maybe prison for stealing food to live (and
this is great Britain. I think not)
CASE B
I lived on £27.40 after coming out of prison as
a teenager for a driving offence with no fixed abode and no one to turn
to, I squatted on the Stonebridge estate in properties not fit for
habitation and still lived better than some people who have to live on
benefits because of mental or physical disabilities today. The
government are screwing the people of this country into the ground and
were letting them; Time to take a stand is now how many more people have
to die this winter because they can’t afford heat ...
CASE C
@TAP my revised benefit for two adults is £7.50
per week until trumped-up sanctions from the Work Program are ratified
when it will be reduced by £7.50 per week. My crime was printing off a
copy of a truly foul piece of abuse about myself and other victims,
there was no rudeness, bad language or agitated behaviour on my side but
such is the way of the state's bullies. I've redacted this for
decency’s sake. This was posted in my presence and forwarded to me by
anonymous
CASE D
I am going through this I am a single disabled
person who last year failed the Atos capability assessment my appeal
will not be heard till this December just over a year since my
assessment out of my £71 a week I have to pay room tax council tax +
liability order hospital travel + some medication and travel to see
government work focused group this leaves very little for food or
heating I cannot see a change and very much doubt I will win my case as
Atos seems beyond reproach my doctor was also instructed not to issue
myself with any unfit to work certificates by DHSS thankfully he has
ignored it is infuriating that my well established GP's judgement can be
in question yet Atos send a nurse for my assessment and her judgement
cannot be questioned
