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Recipients claimed to have a "spare" bedroom face cuts totaling 14%. Those with two "spare" ones lose 25%. Britain calls the measure an "under-occupancy penalty."
Imposing it seeks to encourage more efficient social housing use. It inflicts enormous harm on vulnerable households. Expect more ahead hitting them harder. It's coming in waves. One measure leads to others. Like America, Britain's heading for third world status.
Hundreds of thousands of people are affected. Many will become homeless. Britain's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne said the new bedroom tax will "end up costing more than it saves as tenants are forced to go homeless or move into the expensive private renter sector."
Around 90,000 households are affected. Less than 4,000 smaller homes can accommodate them. In April, "personal independence payments (PIPs)" replace disability living allowances.
Private consulting and information technology services firm ATOS will assess whether benefit claimants can work. It'll be paid up to one billion pounds to do so. In the past, it claimed stroke victims were fit to work.
ATOS aims to remove another 500,000 claimants from benefit rolls. Doing so will throw many of them in the street. They'll risk losing out entirely.
New Health and Social Care Act legislation affects them. Enactment reverses 1946 free, universal National Health Service care. Government no longer has a legal duty to provide it.
Newly created Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) now have a "duty to arrange" what used to be mandated. Doing so shifts costs on the backs of vulnerable Brits least able to afford them. Commercializing healthcare lets predatory private profiteers take full advantage.
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