"Eviction notices surge by 26%"

An alarming story today from "Inside Housing" magazine. "The survey shows the landlords issued 99,904 notices seeking possession for rent arrears in April to November this year, compared with 79,238 for the same period in 2012 - a 26 per cent increase".

The survey is of social tenants who rent from Councils and Housing Associations. It is clear that not only is bedroom tax a major cause but also the cost of living crisis since due to years of falling wages many tenants just don't earn enough to pay the rent. I wonder what impact the new Tory so called "affordable" (up to 80% of market) rents" have had on this statistic?

I suspect that things can only get worse. Councils have been able to distribute some temporary relief from a discretionary Government fund. But this is too little and running out.

What will also happen when the total benefit cap begins to really bite?

Private landlords have also seen evictions soar according to this report. 

Many years ago I took part in an eviction of a family home as a housing officer just before Christmas. The tenant had ignored all contact with the rent officers and Courts. He hadn't told his wife about what was happening. The first thing she knew about it was when the bailiff and locksmith knocked on the door while she was cooking food for her children. She had to leave there and then with her Children and a suitcase, while we put her in a taxi to the Council homeless unit for emergency rehousing in a grotty bed and breakfast.

That is the reality of evictions. It is the innocent and vulnerable who will suffer the most. 

Welfare reform: Its a £500 per week cap: its not a minimum

Last week I was having a conversation with a (Non Unison) trade union colleague about welfare reform and its impact on our members who work in Housing organisations and the backlash they will face.

She agreed about the backlash but said it was about time that the Government cracked down on benefits since people got too much money.

I disagreed and said that Job Seeker's allowance is only £71 per week, so how can she say this is too much money? She replied by saying that "£71 per week? They get far more. No one can live on that". I said no, it is only £71.

She came back by saying she had a "friend" who hasn't worked in years yet she has paid off her mortgage while on benefits and goes on foreign holidays.

I said you only get some of your interest paid not capital repayment if you have a mortgage and are on benefits. It sounds like your "friend" is fiddling somehow, not that benefit levels are too high. Which is a totally different and criminal matter.

Later that day I went to a trade union shop meeting and when again I brought up welfare reform, I had one member say that he only earns £22,000 per year and it is wrong that families who don't work get £26,000. A number of people agreed with him. I had to explain that only a tiny, tiny number of families get anywhere near that amount of money and only if they have a large family and have to rent in an expensive part of London. I explained that most benefit claimants are on £71 per week income. Again, this figure of £71 per week was disputed since surely "they must get more" and "no one could live on that amount".

I think that this (totally unrepresentative) sample shows the job of work we all have on welfare reform. Such is the power of the propaganda by the right wing tabloid press such as the Daily Mail and The Sun, that many ordinary working people are believing the fibs about "striver's and shirker's".

Too often in the Labour movement we live in our own bubble and imagine that everything thinks the same as we do on key issues. We need to step outside our own self congratulatory comfort zone, speak to real members and challenge tabloid Tory lies.

 Picture hat tip Press Not Sorry