Martin Ralph, interviews Sarah Murphy, member of the PCS, who helped form a group against the bedroom tax in March in Leasowe, Wirral.
Socialist Voice: How is the fight against the bedroom tax going?
Sarah Murphy: Our first meeting had a great turn of at least 70 people and has continued from there.
We organised a small demonstration outside the local housing office and handed them a letter of invitation to our next meeting. The manager came down and asked us to move away, yet she refuses to move and re-house people. No one from the housing office comes to our meetings, they have just sent a letter to us explaining what the bedroom tax is.
We can copy that letter and use it as a newsletter to the local community to show exactly what their housing association thinks. A lot of people living in this area understand how the tax works and what it will mean.
SV: What points in the fight against the bedroom do you think need further explanation?
SM: The first point is, even if you are not directly affected, you will be affected because your community is going to be ripped apart when neighbours are forced to move away. Secondly, there are NO one bedroom or two bedroom properties available for people to move into, which means that about 900 people are going after the same property.
Single people are being refused their request to move from three bedroom properties into two bedroom flats, because it’s argued that they will still be living with an ‘under occupied’ tenancy. And because of the lack of one bedroom flats in our area, people are going to have to leave the home, community and the area in which they grew up, which in some cases is where their parents and grandparents lived.
There are people who do not understand and ask questions such as, “Why should a single person live in a three bedroom property when there are people with three children having to live in two bedroom properties?” One answer is to point out that the housing associations
have not invested in providing enough social housing for people to move into, even if they are under occupied. Now, many will be forced to move into private accommodation.
Thirdly we highlight that if you work and live in so-called ‘under-occupied’ property, and are not in receipt of housing benefit, then you do not have to move because you pay the full rent. This shows that the bedroom tax is a direct attack on the poorest in your community.
But we also point out that people in receipt of benefits are unemployed or in low paid jobs, all of which is no fault of their own.
While the government argues that the bedroom tax will push people into work and off housing benefit, we all know this is untrue, because many on housing benefit as just stated are in work and at the same time there is rising unemployment and no jobs.
Fourthly, the bedroom tax is a direct attack on the disabled who have been told they cannot have a room to store their equipment. I have spoken to one disabled tenant whose home was adapted with ground floor facilities. She has been asking to move for four years now, but has always been told, “NO, we will not move you as we would have to adapt another property”. This woman lives in a four bedroom home with her son who is her carer.
SV: Do you think that trade unions should join and support this fight?
SM: Yes most definitely, unions should support the fight. People in work places are going to feel the affect too. So I try and explain to my union branch members why we should support this fight. My union the PCS and Unite are supporting our fight.
I am the new Campaigns Officer for the Wirral branch of PCS and we are campaigning to get more members involved.
SV: Is the PCS currently taking action against the austerity cuts?
SM: We have been taking strike action since 20 March which will continue up to 20 June. The union have asked us to come up with ideas for the most effective action for our branch to put forward to the national executive committee. And the majority of members are supporting the strike action.
