The Fife Anti-Bedroom Tax campaign has taken up a national call for an amnesty on arrears.
Six months after changes were introduced to tackle what the UK Government describes as the spare room subsidy, the Fife group said many tenants are already in rent arrears to the tune of hundreds of pounds, with no means of paying.
Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation chairman Tommy Sheridan said radical steps have to be taken to help those who are being “hounded” by their landlords to pay what they haven’t got.
In Fife, the group claims there have been accounts of tenants being contacted by landlords by phone and letter, demanding that they pay or lose their homes.
Tenants who have tried to downsize by mutual exchange find themselves in a “Catch 22” situation as they are being told that they cannot move until they pay off their arrears.
Louise McLeary, of the Fife Anti-Bedroom Tax Campaign, said: “I was in touch with a woman only last week who told me how mortified she was that for the first time in her 28 years as a council tenant she finds herself in rent arrears and, because she has a small disability premium on her benefit, she qualifies for only a miniscule discretionary housing payment, regarded by social landlords as the panacea for tenants.
“We cannot allow this situation to continue people must be freed from this debt that is there only because they’ve been targeted by the Government to take the brunt of the financial crisis.
“The appeals that are being won now on a weekly basis, the condemnation over the bedroom tax’s disregard for basic human rights by the UN reporter when reviewing the UK’s housing last month, and the amount of arrears that are being stacked up, show clearly that the ‘tax’ is becoming unworkable.
“Having an amnesty on arrears for Scottish social tenants might be enough to derail the ‘bedroom tax’ once and for all in Scotland.”
The group has invited Tommy Sheridan to be the keynote speaker at its public meeting at 7.30pm tonight in Templehall Community Centre, Kirkcaldy.