Bedroom Tax

Bedroom Tax 

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it" Joseph Goebbels 1938

The current Government portray six myths about the poor that they are lazy, that they are addicted to drink and drugs, that they are not really poor, that they cheat the system, that they have an easy life, that they caused the deficit.

Let me tell you about two of my constituents:

Lorna and Darren, they live on Rudyard Mews in Walkley.

Lorna is 43 Darren is 46 they don’t have children.

They both worked full time in professional positions, had a mortgage, holidays overseas all in all a good life.

In 2005 Darren became ill with Encephalitis this illness left him suffering from epilepsy, long and short term memory loss, fatigue, depression.

In 2006 Lorna left her job to help Darren set up in business as he was unable to hold down a job working for someone else, at one point they were employing 20 sub-contractors.

Darren’s condition worsened and he was unable to keep the business going, Lorna became his full time carer and thanks to the mortgage rescue scheme they have managed to keep their house with a social housing association buying the house and renting it back to them.

Darren’s health has deteriorated to an extent that he can’t leave the house, Lorna is now his full time carer, as she says her doing this saves the public purse tens of thousands of pounds a year in care costs.

They are currently in receipt of benefits but they have a second bedroom that Lorna sleeps in due to Darren’s fits and irregular sleeping patterns, now they are going to have to pay for this from their very limited income.

These people have worked all their lives, paid into the system now when they need help it’s not there.

Are they lazy scroungers? Are they layabouts? Do they keep their curtains closed while their neighbours go to work?

As Lorna says the madness of it all is if she was to return to work it would cost the public purse tens of thousands a year to look after Darren because of the number of hours of care he needs.

Osborne said this week "For too long, we've had a system where people who did the right thing – who get up in the morning and work hard – felt penalised for it,” that’s wrong."

No George I’ll tell you what’s wrong the persecution of innocent hard working people like Lorna and Darren by the right wing vengeful ideologically driven Tory Government propped by people who used to call themselves Liberal but who now make Margaret Thatcher seem benevolent.

To quote Paul Morrison from the Methodist Church who said ‘ The benefit cuts are a symptom of an understanding of people in poverty in the United Kingdom that is just wrong’