What a win!
Any separated parent and often the father who has a ‘spare’ bedroom for his child or children who stay at weekends and holidays and is hit by the pernicious bedroom tax for wanting to still be a responsible parent and have a family life then read this and SMILE.
Then read it again. Then get someone you know to read it out to you just so you know your eyes havent deceived you as to what this SENSATIONAL judgment says.
It says you have a right to a bedroom for your children.
It says your children have a right to a bedroom in your home which is also their home
Mi casa su casa!
It says the back of a fag packet bedroom tax ‘rules’ deny you that right to family life and is a breach of your human rights. It also says the HB regulations that do NOT allow you a bedroom for your child are NOT compatible with the IMPERATIVES of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in these circumstances.
The coalition call this policy the spare room subsidy and have tried to sell it on morality grounds.
YET there is nothing more IMMORAL than the state interfering and denying a parent their absolute inviolable right to a family life AND THE BEDROOM TAX ALSO SEEKS TO DENY A CHILD THE RIGHT TO A FAMILY LIFE TOO
Next time you see IDS or Freud or McVey laying on the spare room subsidy argument as being moral and just and right and all the rest of that hypocritcal blather, then remember reader the DWP argument seeks to deny a parent his or her child and seeks to deny a child his or her parent….and the court here has said correctly that in these all too common circumstances that the bedroom tax policy is a fundamantal breach of the right all parents and all children have…that of what the Tories used to uphold as sacrosanct…a family life!
Read, enjoy and then make sure everyone knows about this reader
The two page judgment which is also a statement of reasons here in .pdf form (Page One & Page Two)
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MD – absolutely superb work
SPeye Joe (Welfarewrites) 
Reblogged this on The Greater Fool.
yet another chip out of it its on a shoogely hook even more now!! let it topple and take its makers with it!!!
Have you any more details/links to this please? I’m in the same situation and would like to appeal on the same grounds. I also run a local poverty/welfare reform group and would like to encourage people in my local area to do the same. Who in the first instance do I need to write to to appeal is it hben dept or dwp?
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
Reblogged this on The Wayward Nana and commented:
im gonna fight on this ground myself because when i start contact with my boy at the beginning of march my darling grandson will need his own room yeh!!
Another massive chunk taken from this hated tax.Its foundations are crumbling with each and every one of these court or tribunal decisions.Common sense says IDS,McVey,Cameron and Osbourne should revoke this policy as it is clearly redundant now.
Great research, thank you
Sarah click the red page 1 and page 2
Thanks Joe – massive virtual hug to you and the team
Surely you could use this same idea for when you apply for a house with council?? I know when your kid(s) dont always stay with you the council will not give you the spare bedroom.
Fantastic news. How would I go about appealing this? Basically my situation is that me and my partner were given a 3 bed place in 2010 as his children from a previous relationship stay with us on weekends(we were told too, that the waiting list for a 2 bed place was over a year long, where we could get a 3 bed immediately). Obviously when the bedroom tax came in, it was as if the children werent there anymore. We struggled to pay it for a few months, and then just gave up and have paid nothing since and have recently had a notice seeking possession for rent arrears. Now this doesnt matter TOO much as we are planning on moving anyway…but I am wondering if we could get the arrears reduced by appealing? Thinking about it, the few months we did pay the BT for would probably cover the rest of the arrears, which would mean we left this house with no debt at all..which would be nice. Or would it only be possible to appeal it from now onwards, not backdating it?
It’d be interesting to know if this ruling applies to older children over the age of 18, or just children of school age
i should imagine it only applies to children under 18 as children over 18 in the eyes of the law are adults
Neil a ‘child’ under law can be up to 22 in some circumstances
Surely this will also have much wider ranging consequences too.A right to a family life could also now be argued for brothers sisters, older children, grandchildren etc etc…….
K – This will have so many implications such as is a landlords allocation policy which would deny a 2 bed to a separated parent ECHR compliant? Yet they can wait for another day as this news needs to be celebrated and IDS et al can be left to fester!
Ha thanks Joe!
Neil P – Children can be older than 18 as Children Act states and just another complication and another unforseen consequence of the back of a fag packet policy
This ruling applies from 1 April 2013 as do all successful appeals as that the the date of decision that the tribunal has changed
Hi, I’ve lived in my house for fourteen, years, It’s 3 beds,my daughter moved out last year due to having a baby leaving my son and myself. Would it be worth me appealing?
Reblogged this on Vox Political.
great news…i am a hardened cubanista so before you get carried away Labour will shaft separated dads and always have…a plague on both their houses…
Reblogged this on Same Difference.
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
This also opens the door to carers of adult children. My son is mentally ill and I am his carer he gets dla for care in the day and care in the night. If he is very ill he has to stay with me to keep him safe from himself – serious self harmer. He doesn’t have room for a carer in his one bed flat for me to sleep so has to stay at mine. So removing my spare bedroom removes my right to care for my own disabled child which I think would be covered under right to a private and family life.
This is wonderful news and I have a huge smile on my face 🙂 This evil tax is crumbling faster than a huge block of flats that have dynamite in!
Oh how I would love to see the faces of the likes of IDS and Osbourne and Oh to be a fly on the wall in No 10.
Just a damned shame that the “ordinary” person/s had to do this and Labour have done nothing since the tax came in! They’ve only jumped on the bandwaggon since so many people have joined together and courts have been upholding appeals.
Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
Wonderful News – Spread it wide and far 🙂
Brilliant news. Another win……….. I can’t see why other circumstances like Grandparents etc., can’t also use this judgement. Human Rights. And family life
APPEAL. APPEAL!!
Great news on this appeal but beware- Theresa May and all the Tory loonies want to ditch the ECHR and are going to do so if they win the next election. They argue that this is primarily so they can legally deport hate-preachers and such like- but they of course know EXACTLY what they’re aiming at. They know that their Dickensian ‘workhouse’ policies are going to create uproar all over these islands and they want freedom from European justice to go ahead with their version of austerity. They are fully aware that the miners revolt will look like a playground tiff compared to what 90% of the electorate will have to say when their unabashed greed and cruelty becomes fully apparent. The right to protest is being washed away as we speak and has anyone asked themselves why Boris is so hell-bent on buying these new water cannons?
I wonder if this will apply to Local Housing Allowance in the private rented sector?
Reblogged this on Helmut Zermin 's Blog.
Reblogged this on glynismillward189.
This is good news but one question. The court paper states ‘housing benefit appeal,’ so does this case concern local housing allowance or under occupation penalty?
“santatiger February 18, 2014 at 10:05 pm Reply
Surely this will also have much wider ranging consequences too.A right to a family life could also now be argued for brothers sisters, older children, grandchildren etc etc…….”
If only – doesn’t work for severely disabled sibling,
please can anyone tell me what I would call this rulling so when I use it at my tribunal they will know what I am talking about . Ive just been told I will not be exempted from BT because im not the sole carrer of my to small children, surely though my ex wife isn’t the sole carrer as they stay with me every weekend and most of the school holidays.