Campaigners in Dundee delivered open letters to the city’s main housing associations, urging them to rule out evicting tenants who fall foul of the so-called bedroom tax.
The Bin the Bedroom Tax protesters began their tour of Dundee housing associations by delivering the letter to the Hillcrest Housing Association office at City Quay.
Housing associations were called to sign the letter committing them to “not evict tenants who fall into rent arrears as a result of the bedroom tax”.
The letter states: “At least 3,300 council and housing association households in the city (Dundee) will lose between 14% and 25% of their housing benefit and be expected to make this up from their own meagre benefits.
“The Bin the Bedroom Tax campaign is calling for the scrapping of this legislation and for all debt to be written off and for the Scottish Government to provide compensation for councils and HAs (housing associations) who have lost income as a result.
“However, we believe that all social housing providers have a responsibility to refuse to carry out evictions of families and tenants who, through no fault of their own, will fall into rent arrears as a direct result of this tax.”
The campaigners asked the housing associations to follow Dundee City Council, which has agreed not to evict tenants who fall into arrears.
Philip Stott, spokesman for the campaign, said: “This is a policy that is going to impact horrendously on the poorest in Dundee, people who are already on benefits or low incomes.
“People cannot pay this, it’s already coming out of benefits. We are appealing to housing associations to stand by their tenants, tenants who have done nothing wrong.”
Mr Stott said the group was expecting a sympathetic response.“I think it’s true that social housing providers regard this tax and all the attacks on welfare as a very damaging blow to them,” he said.
“There’s no doubt about it, the only way to relieve this is not to take money from the poor but to scrap the bedroom tax.”
After Hillcrest Housing the campaigners made their way to other companies, including Sanctuary Housing. Sanctuary Scotland said they were sympathetic to the cause of tenants affected by the policy.
“We appreciate it will be difficult for some tenants to pay this charge,” a spokesman for the company said.
“We have been in touch with all tenants who have been affected to offer them support and advice. We have a duty to all our tenants to ensure we collect as much rent as possible.
“Cases where high rent arrears have accrued are always given very careful consideration, based on the tenant’s individual circumstances, before any action such as eviction is agreed.”
However, Sanctuary Scotland stopped short of committing to agree to a non -eviction stance. Similarly Hillcrest Housing Association said they were trying to help tenants who could be struggling.
Fiona Morrison, director of housing, said: “We believe all cases need to be looked at individually.
“Hillcrest employ a dedicated team of tenancy sustainment officers and locally based community housing officers who are proactively visiting every tenant we believe will be affected by the bedroom tax to discuss their options.
“We are prioritising cases for transfers where we can, and if this is the desired option for the tenant.
“We hope to access Discretionary Housing Payment for some of our tenants which will, if the claims are successful, result in a temporary fix to the problem.”