Wirral’s Labour Council and bedroom tax sophistry

The Labour run Wirral Council is patting itself on the back in the local newspaper the Liverpool Echo tonight for finding £75,000 to help the most deserving bedroom tax cases.

This is the same council who received £995,795 in discretionary housing payments (DHP) funding from central government and COULD have added £1,493,692 to this….yet it chose to add £75,000 or just 5% of what it could have added.  Of course they don’t tell you that in the article and the pliant local evening newspaper of course has to consider just how much advertising spend Wirral council has with the Echo so the journalist ever so conveniently fails to mention this too.

Both the Labour councillors and the local paper also omit to say that Wirral has 3,571 households affected by the bedroom tax with an average deduction of £14.01 per week meaning that the bedroom tax take from Wirral residents is some £2.61m per year.

This means the generous burghers running Wirral council has put in about 2.8% of the total taken from vulnerable households in Wirral or should that be their whopping £75,000 will not reach 97.1% of those vulnerable households hit?

While any council adding any level of money to help bedroom tax victims is welcome, to claim plaudits for this miserly amount is in local jargon severely taking the piss.

Finally the Echo claims in this sycophantic piece of pretend journalism that : –

“Next week the Wirral Campaign against the Bedroom Tax has organised a march against the spare room subsidy through Birkenhead.”

Yes I can see the BAN THE SPARE ROOM SUBSIDY banners now can’t you reader?  I wonder if the Echo will send along the same numpty of a reporter to cover this?

Maybe it will change to Spare Room Subsidy is IDS’s perfidy altogether now

Spare room sub – si – dee is ID -esses – per-fidy, Spare room sub – si – dee is ID -esses – per-fidy!

PS – Just noticed that the picture the Echo is using features a lady underneath the balloons (black top, red skirt) who won her bedroom appeal 2 weeks ago!  Now hows that for irony dear reader!!