“SEE you in court!” I say, voice raised, as I slam the phone down on the call handler.
It was my third call to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) about the absurd bedroom tax we were facing and nothing had changed, so this time I was taking legal action.
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The property I live in is a three bedroom detached council house in Silverdale, Newcastle-Under-Lyme.
As it is just myself and my partner Paul in our home the DWP has always deducted our joint Universal Credit claim for this by almost £100 in bedroom tax.
Introduced in 2013 the policy is part of the British Welfare Reform Act 2012 and outlines that council or social housing tenants with rooms deemed to be “spare” face a reduction in housing benefit.
Having one bedroom more than the calculated allowance means a reduction in housing benefit of 14 per cent, and two “spare” bedrooms means that a tenant will lose 25 per cent of their housing benefit.
The ruling states that one bedroom is allowed per adult couple and while I have three bedrooms I don’t agree that we should be penalised for them.
The £911 a month Universal Credit we received barely covered our rent and bills so to lose out on £94 to spare bedroom tax was out of the question.
Conservative minister Iain Duncan Smith previously argued it was an “unfair situation where the tax payer is subsidising people to have home, paid for by the state, with spare rooms they do not need”.
While many will be quick to agree, I do in fact need all of the bedrooms in my home.
The first spare ‘bedroom’ is upstairs and is completely inaccessible to my partner as he is a permanent wheelchair user.
The two downstairs rooms are both under 3 x 3 metres so we need the extra room simply to store Paul’s wheelchair and equipment such as wheelchair chargers and the two extra seats we removed from his car to fit his hoist and wheelchair in.
As the rooms are so small, Paul also needs his wardrobe in our spare room as the other room only fits a queen-sized bed and wheelchair.
The spare bedroom tax penalises those with disabilities and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Two-thirds of the people affected are registered as disabled and when the policy was introduced many found themselves suddenly liable for the bedroom tax after deaths or after children had moved out of the home.
In 2012 the High Court rejected the premise that the policy was a breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights due to the effect on disabled people.
The following year disabled grandmother Stephanie Bottrill took her own life after struggling to cope with the newly introduced tax on the three bedroom home she had lived in for 18 years.
The law has since been amended so that those whose bedrooms stand empty as a result of death are exempt.
Prickling with the injustice of our own situation, I asked the DWP to reconsider what we are entitled to, known as a mandatory reconsideration.
When this was rejected with an official letter, I made the decision to take the DWP to court, a tribunal all DWP claimants are entitled to if they disagree with a decision.
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It wasn’t the first time I’d done this.
In 2013 my PIP for schizophrenia was stopped. According to the DWP I couldn’t possibly work part-time as a journalist if I really had schizophrenia.
It didn’t seem to matter that I was working from home, mostly from my bed on my laptop, always in my PJs and never working more than 16 hours a week.
Back then I also disagreed with the decision to stop my PIP and asked for a mandatory reconsideration. After they rejected this, I took the DWP to court and the judge ruled I was indeed entitled to middle rate PIP – which was a higher rate than I’d expected.
Our court hearing this March only lasted 20 minutes.
Armed with my packet of Lambert cigarettes and wearing my tracksuit, I calmly stated our case to the DWP representative.
I was intimidated, so I only said the bare bones of our case, that I disagreed with the DWP’s decision to add bedroom tax for two spare rooms to our Universal Credit payment each month.
We got lucky with our representative who said that the decision to add bedroom tax to our benefits was “utterly ridiculous” especially when the upstairs room was inaccessible by wheelchair.
So a month after the ruling, I got a lump sum of £600 and an extra £94 a month in Universal Credit.
I’ve invested the £600 in a desk, a sewing machine and new laptop which I hope, when further benefits cuts take place next year, might help make an income from writing and clothing alterations.
If, like me, you disagree with a decision made about your benefits don’t stay silent. Ask for your mandatory reconsideration and if you still disagree, take it to a tribunal.
Be sure to read all documents in full and they will outline the steps that you need to take, to further your claim.
I’ve won the two appeals and now my benefits income has been boosted to £1,004 a month, more than ever before.
That doesn’t make me greedy or a scrounger, it’s just what I am entitled to.
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