If you have received a letter notifying you that you will be hit by the bedroom tax, you can appeal the decision in writing.
Each appeal lodged costs the council
around £200 and forces them to open a file and spend time reviewing it.
If tenants lodge appeals en masse,
we can throw a spanner in the works of the bedroom tax, making it too difficult
and too expensive to roll out.
If you are holding meetings in your
area already, bring copies of an appeal letter to the meetings and get anybody
who hasn't already to sign them and send them off, the more people who appeal
the better.
You can use the standard letter
below as a template:
To whom it may concern (add council
official, housing association, etc)
I received your decision letter
dated (INSERT DATE) and referenced above that imposed an under occupation charge,
or bedroom tax of 14% / 25% (delete as appropriate) on my existing award of
Housing Benefit.
I
consider this unwarranted yet in order to challenge this in the correct way and
potentially by way of formal appeal I require further information to be sent to
me within 7 days of this letter and the urgency of that is to ensure I have
enough time to formulate any such appeal and in full knowledge of the facts of my case within the time allowed; OR
in the alternative I request the deadline for any such formal appeal be moved
to 21 days after I receive the request information below:
- A written copy of the Council’s policy and decision-making procedures in relation to referring a socially housed claimant decision to the Rent Officer Service.
- A full explanation of how the council decided that (INSERT ADDRESS) was determined to be a 3 bed property for the under occupation charge and this to include what involvement if any of my landlord, (INSERT LANDLORD NAME) in this process.
Please state by way of
covering letter with the requested information any changed deadline date from
above with regard to a formal appeal.
Yours, etc.
Again, this is only one way to potentially combat the bedroom tax: the State has a shitty habit of closing down any loopholes that spring-up in its face, as evidenced in a recent workfare ruling.
We argue that it's only tenant solidarity and direct action that will see the working class get the goods.
(Standard letter taken
from http://speye.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/bedroom-tax-why-and-how-all-tenants-should-appeal-and-the-impact/).
Thanls to @speyejoe for details.
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