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The Tories love it "we told you so" free propaganda so they can carryout their divide and conquer plan, and everybody falls for it time and time again, and while the population blame the unemployed, disabled and immigration, the Tories continue with their insidious plans to destroy the NHS and the welfare state and sell off anything they can get their grubby hands on, I see the latest privatisation scam is off to a good start the price of postage rising already

Thank God Labour aren't like this. Oh, hang on:

Labour MPs Profit From NHS Privatisation

http://www.cwunorthwest.org/docs/Ne...LabourMPsProfitFromNHSPrivatisation.html

37 Labour peers on the private health payroll

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/08...continues-check-out-the-labour-traitors/

And how many times did Mandleson try to sell the post office when Labour was in power?

found this 16th jan

Click me

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has told Wirral Council’s Housing Benefit Team about a “loophole” in the rules around the under occupation charge, (also known as the bedroom tax). An oversight when the new law was agreed by Parliament means a small minority of tenants may be paying the under occupation charge when they don’t need to.

Magenta Living has looked at the records of all of its tenants affected by the under-occupation charge and 462 of these have pre 1996 tenancies. We think that 320 of those may be paying the under-occupation charge when they don’t need to. All 462 of these cases have been handed over to the Wirral Housing Benefit Team who will evaluate them and let anyone who is entitled to a refund of benefit.

wow, that is a lot of tenants affected. If that is representative of the U.K then the 5% figure that the DWP are saying can't be true.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/...r-times-higher-than-duncan-smith-claims/


Of course IDS does not know what is going on!! LOL

Magenta Living figures suggest this....oh dear, what an incompetent fool he is.

PRESS RELEASE

Merseyside Federation of Anti-Bedroom Tax Groups
Combatting the Bedroom Tax on Merseyside

« Open Letter to Wirral Borough Council Labour Councillors
Press Statement: The Bedroom Tax Is Dead…
February 10, 2014
The bedroom tax is dead in the water following a judgment by an Upper Benefit Tribunal in Bolton on 10th January 2014.

Upper Tribunals set precedents which must be followed by First Tier Benefit Tribunals and, in this case, by local authorities making housing benefit decisions, including all local councils in Merseyside.

The Bolton Upper Tribunal has decided that a bedroom is ‘a room furnished with a bed or used for sleeping in’. This means that a room – which is neither furnished with a bed nor used for sleeping in – is not a bedroom. Across Merseyside thousands of tenants are paying the bedroom tax on rooms which are not bedrooms, but which local authorities have decided are bedrooms based on submissions from housing associations. Such rooms – many of them box rooms – are used for other purposes – as studies, computer rooms, storage rooms, or just lie empty.

The judgment confirms Merseyside Federation’s long-held contention that every bedroom tax decision made in 2013 was fundamentally flawed. Local authorities did not define what a bedroom was, did not see such a definition as necessary, and did not inspect each property to ascertain the true facts of tenants’ individual situation.

The Bolton judgement changes this. Merseyside Federation urges all tenants paying the bedroom tax to immediately appeal, citing the Bolton judgment for the financial year 2013/14. We also urge housing associations to support and promote such appeals since it is in their interest to see as many successful appeals as possible.

To conform to the Bolton judgment, Juliet Edgar (Secretary of the Federation) says:

“Local authorities must inspect every single property they think may be liable for the bedroom tax for 2014/15 to determine for themselves the number of rooms in use as bedrooms. They cannot lawfully rely on housing associations sending information derived from tenancy agreements. This will be impossible: decisions have to be made by the end of March 2014. Such inspections will take hundreds of staff weeks to complete – there is no capacity. The bedroom tax has become inoperable, the bedroom tax is dead”.

Merseyside Federation urges local authorities across Merseyside to make this clear to the government. Merseyside Federation also wishes to support housing association who are encouraging their tenants to appeal the bedroom tax decision, they have access to their tenants and should support tenants to do so. The Merseyside Federation will also assist tenants to appeal.

For further information please contact – Juliet Edgar (Secretary) Merseyside Federation of Anti-Bedroom Tax Groups on 07528194137 or Robert Claridge (Wirral) on 07956458331 or email – [email protected].

To the 'silent members', anti-bedroom tax supporters

http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/stopthebedroomtax/#

Link to template letter to send to MP prior to Wednesday.

Ive just watch a CH4 Dispatches and what the presenter was saying was that its down to individual councils what defines an extra room. (Only saying what the presenter said but there not always right). But if he was right then Bolton Upper Tribunal is relevant to there borough.

A second point they made was the *1996 clause is set to be plugged in March.

Only - - - ->> feedback

Recent legal judgements may make the collection of the hated bedroom tax all but impossible.
..

Crucial definitions of what can and cannot be classed as a bedroom may make the legislation unworkable in a huge embarrassment for the DWP and a marvellous victory for people power.

Overview:

A Tenant had the bedroom tax applied as his landlord and the local council said that he was living in a four bedroom house. The tenant argued that the two of the rooms were too small (60.7 and 69.4 sq/ft) to be classed as bedrooms and that they were used as an art room and a study.

At a tribunal hearing, the tenant raised the precedent from the recently announced Bolton Upper Tribunal. The judge was not aware the recent Bolton Upper Tribunal case for the definition of bedroom and accordingly consulted this case before making his decision. The tenant won their appeal and they are now wholly exempt from the bedroom tax.

The judge ruled that the house can only be considered as a two bedroom house and that the ‘extra’ rooms were too small to let out to a lodger.

Two paragraphs contained in the judgement may signal the death of the bedroom tax.
..

Paragraph 13 of the judgement concluded that:

‘Bedroom’ is not defined by the legislation. This has most recently been pointed out in the Upper Tribunal decision 2014 UKUT 48 AAC. A(t) paragraph 19 of that decision the Tribunal helpfully refer to various definitions of a bedroom.”

and crucially paragraph 19 concluded that:

“The Tribunal finds that neither of the two smallest rooms are bedrooms. They do not contain beds, they are not used for sleeping, they can only be occupied by a child under 10, a half person…”

You can view the legal documents here.

This has far reaching ramifications for the bedroom tax which in the terms of the judgement may have been wrongly applied to pretty much everyone subject to it.

Consider:

(a ) No local council can now make a bedroom tax decision without first having inspected the property involved. A huge and costly undertaking for which structures, staff and funding do not exist.

(b) All bedroom tax decisions prior to the judgement are potentially vulnerable to appeals, as there is no way that any council could have known whether rooms were used or furnished as a bedroom.

(c) One could also argue on the basis of the new judgement that under occupancy is impossible. How can a single person have three bedrooms at all? Nobody can sleep in multiple bedrooms simultaneously, hence they can only have one ‘bedroom’.

(d) Once the expected tidal wave of appeals starts to loom on the horizon and the cost implications of house inspections becomes clear – its hard to see how much if any money will be actually saved by the DWP – further undermining the legitimacy of the bedroom tax.

The Haze doubts that this story will be covered by the mainstream media so as usual its up to us.

The only way the bedroom tax will survive these historic judgements is if people don’t find out about it. So PLEASE share this news far and wide.
..

Nearly 2,600 people across Merseyside will be eligible for rebates running into hundreds of pounds after wrongly paying the so-called "bedroom tax".

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said a legislation error meant those in receipt of housing benefit since 1996 should not have paid the under-occupation penalty.

The rebate is thought to be worth around £560.

The DWP said it expected 5,000 to be affected across the UK.

Housing benefit was cut by 14% for social housing tenants, not including pensioners, deemed to have one spare bedroom and by 25% for those with two or more spare rooms.

Source

Closer to 40 000. 5 000 affected in Merseyside alone. Will find source later.

The UNLAWFUL bedroom tax imposed by IDS sees him steal £22m from the disabled!

Uncategorized January 21, 2014 Comments: 12
Fully updated 5 February 2014

IDS is going to change the bedroom tax legislation without debate or discussion on 3 March to make stealing £22m from the disabled lawful. We all need to stop him.

This post is a major update of the numbers of exempt bedroom tax households who have had the bedroom tax UNLAWFULLY IMPOSED upon them by the incompetence of IDS and the DWP.

For example today Birmingham announced that they have over 2000 households who have been UNLAWFULLY IMPOSED with the bedroom tax against the DWP estimate of just 95 households. That is 21 times more than the estimate IDS gave for his alleged ‘small’ number! It also means IDS has STOLEN about £1.5m from Birmingham tenants and 87% of them will be disabled and two thirds – a million pounds alone – has been stolen from women in Birmingham so far this year by IDS.

That amount is rising by the day and that amount IDS calls ‘small!’

Even the London borough of Westminster announced they had 124 households who had been UNLAWFULLY IMPOSED (and no apologies for thee capitalisation or shouting – it deserves to be said for what it is and SHOUTED from the highest rooftops)

The DWP estimate for Westminster was 7…yes that’s seven but at the latest count it is 124 or almost 18 times the estimate of IDS.

The DWP estimate equates to just 0.76% of all bedroom tax cases yet Westminster is 12.7% (and see other figures below.)

So even London which has 22% of working age tenants affected by the bedroom tax compared with twice that number in the North West at 43% still has almost 13% of bedroom tax cases that were UNLAWFULLY IMPOSED by IDS’s cock up. Make no mistake this is not a small loophole reader, it is a major major cock up and says so much about how thought through and considered the bedroom tax policy was!

Are there 60.000 families who have had the bedroom tax wrongly imposed?

Just How big is the ‘small’ issue IDS says it is?

Ready for some numbers on the pre 1996 exempt bedroom tax issue that will (a) expose that the policy is ill considered; that (b) blows the DWP’s estimate of a ‘small’ number of 3000 – 5000 only being affected by this, and (c) exposes that the coalition has no credibility over the bedroom tax and the wider welfare reforms it is imposing?

Yes thought you might so let’s have a look!

The DWP and Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud have all said the number of those households who were wrongly imposed with the bedroom tax as a result of the DWP’s error is between 3000 – 5000 nationally. Let’s say 4000 which is the midpoint.

I estimated the number to be 40,000 or ten times the DWP amount of their midpoint of 4000. This caused some commotion and was the lead story on the front page of the Guardian. It has also been covered on Sky News and elsewhere such as the housing media when my 40,000 estimate has always been seen as the highest estimate. It will shortly form part of a Dispatches programme on Channel 4 in early February as well

So was I so far off the real figure or was my 40,000 an underestimate or if you will, and no pun intended, a conservative estimate?

It is very much looking like the latter as the table below of early figures suggests.

DWP fig

40,000 fig

Early figs

If national average

Exeter
5

47

31

26,000

Milton Keynes
12

122

78

25,400

St Helens
24

243

456

74,500

Sefton
24

240

500+

83,000

Waltham Forest
11

112

146+

51,600

West Lancashire
8

83

150+

72,300

Wirral
29

289

528

72,800

TOTALS
117

1136

1889

AVERAGES
16

162

270

57,900

Column 1 is the local council name: Column 2 is what the council should have with the 4000 DWP est.

Column 3 is the number the 40,000 estimate should give: Column 4 is the early number identified

Column 5 is the extrapolated figure

What the early figures shows is that it may well be much higher than my 40,000 estimate and circa 60,000 households wrongly imposed with the bedroom tax.

Some notes as to why the figures above are a conservative estimate.

The figures are in many cases from just one landlord in each area and usually the former council housing department which has stock transferred. So in for example Sefton above the figures will be higher when other housing associations in Sefton are added to the 500+ figure given to colleagues at Reclaim today by One Vision Housing
The figures will NOT include those that have succeeded to the tenancy since 1996 who if the continuous HB claim criterion is met will also be exempt.
The figures have been given to me from councils and from housing associations
Yet the real issue is just how incompetent is the DWP estimate of 4000 compared to the final figure which I suggest may well be 60,000 if not more

Just the figures above from seven council areas alone has taken up almost 50% of the entire DWP estimate for the whole of the country and there are over 300 more to add to this!

Even if the lowest ‘early’ figure of Exeter equates to the final figure it will still be 26,000 families across the country that have wrongly had the bedroom tax imposed.

Just how little is the knowledge of and the forethought put into the bedroom tax by the coalition?

What does this say about the bedroom tax and the other welfare reforms of this coalition?

If it is 60,000 households each with 2.4 persons in each household then that is 144,000 men women and children who have been wrongly imposed with the bedroom tax and that is one hell of a lot of offensive consequences for those people.

It’s a number that is the size of the population in Blackpool or Windsor or Oxford or Middlesbrough or Ipswich or Guildford. A number that only Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen has a greater population than in Scotland: A number that only Cardiff and Swansea better in Wales, and only Belfast beats in Northern Ireland.

It’s a number that Iain Duncan Smith says is small!!

It is conceivable when Liverpool and Knowsley figures are added to the other three areas of Sefton, St Helens and Wirral above that make up Merseyside that number alone may be more than 4000 households wrongly having the bedroom tax imposed and more than the DWP estimate for the whole country. And note that Merseyside has less than 5% of all bedroom tax cases nationally.

Anyone still think this is going to be a small number?
Anyone still think my 40,000 original estimate was hot air and attention seeking?
Anyone still think the bedroom tax policy was well conceived?
Anyone still think the bedroom tax was well thought through?
Anyone still got any confidence in this coalition over the bedroom tax?
Anyone still got any confidence in the coalition’s wider welfare reforms?
Anyone still believe that the pre 1996 number focus is anything more than a clever political strategy by the DWP to move the focus away from the huge cock up they made and away from the bloody offensive impact it has had on tens of thousands of men women and children?

So now that the DWP risible estimate has been exposed for what it is I do wish the media would focus on what this has meant for those exempt.

Just how many have skipped at least one meal a day to pay for a tax they didn’t have to pay?
Just how many have not been able to afford to put the heating on because of this?
How many in addition to these numbers have already moved and left the family home because of this inept policy and the DWP cock up? Yes these people are in addition to the numbers above too aren’t they reader?
How many families and wider families have lost the ‘family home’ due to this error and felt compelled and indeed advised to leave the family home they have decades of memories in?
How many have been evicted for bedroom tax arrears when the bedroom tax wasn’t due at all? Whether the law sees that as “eviction by oppression” or not it most definitely means that in any other terms!
I ask again, is there anyone that still…..oh hang on…what’s that noise in the sky? Is it hawkish solicitors circling ready to bombard all and sundry with compensation claims? Ahem!

If wrongly imposed bedroom tax tenants who are exempt because of the pre 1996 issue began a Parliamentary Ombudsman complaint against the DWP for maladministration. And especially if they live in Chingford or Wirral West.

The procedure is tenant writes directly to DWP with the maladministration complaint (and copies this in to their local MP.) If no response from DWP or an unsatisfactory one they then ask their MP to take up a Parliamentary Ombudsman complaint on their behalf which of course their MP can hardly refuse to do.

In Chingford that would see IDS launching a Parliamentary Ombudsman complaint against his own bedroom tax policy!!

And Esther McVey having to do the same for Wirral West constituents which of course the above early figures in the table shows there are many of these tenants in her constituency who have had the bedroom tax wrongly imposed upon them!!

But imagine these Wirral tenants are in neighbouring Frank Field’s Wirral ward of Birkenhead. Can you see Frank Field – he of tenants should brick up doorways or knock down walls due to the bedroom tax – standing up in the House of Commons to announce he has today launched 200 separate cases of maladministration against the DWPs bedroom tax policy? Or any other opposition MP across the country doing the same?

Would it even matter if the maladministration claim was not upheld? I doubt it would (though suggest such claims may well be upheld) as just the spectacle and political embarrassment this would cause and just how much doubt this would cast on the coalition’s credibility is more than enough. Maybe more than enough to prevent the coalition changing the legislation as this would be seen as a cover up for their cock up in the first place…and of course keep this cock up (which they risibly call a loophole!!) firmly in front of the full glare of the media.

Anyone still think this is “small?” No didn’t think so!!

UPDATE 5 Feb 2014

It appears Birmingham has just announced at Cabinet that the numbers there are 2000+ and rising and not all landlords figures in yet. IDS and DWP estimate for Birmingham was 95 – so it is over 21 times the DWP estimate!

Earlier today LB Westminster (DWP est of just 7 households) revealed it was 124 or almost EIGHTEEN TIMES the DWP estimate

Pictures tell numbers so much better and here is a very quick chart that shows just how wrong, badly wrong IDS and the DWP got this estimate, which I remind you dear reader is of those who have been UNLAWFULLY IMPOSED with the bedroom tax when they are exempt.

PRE96EXEMPT

What charts dont say is that, to date, IDS and the DWP have stolen at least £25m from those who are exempt and have had the bedroom tax imposed unlawfully…TWENTY FIVE MILLION.

Thanks to the data and research from ReClaim this means that about £17m has been stolen from women; about £4m or so stolen from family carers and a whopping TWENTY TWO MILLION STOLEN FROM THE DISABLED!

Yet we also now know that IDS is going to change the legislation without debate or discussion on 3 March to make stealing £22m from the disabled lawful.

We need to stop this megalomaniac despot and deluded zealot from doing so. You could do much worse than look at the very well received bedroom tax campaign pack here to see what you can do to stop the zealous IDS from the orgasm he will have fro being a despot and changing the bedroom tax legislation to make it lawful to steal £22m

www.wordpress.speye.com

Your council can no longer administer the bedroom tax and if they make 2014/5 decisions next month they are unlawful - the bedroom tax is 'deader' than dead, even 'deader' than that.

http://wp.me/p1vuvL-WF

Madness.

More good news...


http://speye.wordpress.com/2014/02/...ght-to-a-family-life-what-an-appeal-win/