A MUM who says she is being forced to pay the Government's so-called "bedroom tax" as she wants her son to be able to stay with her is one of the first to join a Derby campaign against the new charge.
Angela Herbert says she shares custody of her 15-year-old son who comes to stay with her in her two-bedroom flat five nights per fortnight.
The new charge, dubbed the "bedroom tax" by opponents, means people in social housing will lose around £12 of their weekly housing benefit for having one spare room and £20 for two or more.
It is intended to encourage people to downsize, ensuring the best use is made of social housing, and reducing the nation's housing benefit bill.
But Ms Herbert, of Gerard Street, says she cannot downsize as she needs a room for her son and that she is struggling to plug a £14 weekly rent deficit.
She has joined a new campaign launched by the Derby branch of the Socialist Party which aims to persuade the Government to scrap the tax. It also wants the city council's leadership to follow other authorities and reclassify bedrooms as studies to get around the new charge.
Labour-run Leeds City Council has reclassified 837 bedrooms in homes in the city in a move that deputy leader Peter Gruen reportedly said was "prompted by welfare changes".
Ms Herbert, who is unemployed and claiming employment and support allowance, said: "Anything the campaign group wants me to do, I'll do it. I was struggling to pay for food, gas, and electric before the bedroom tax. I think trying to reclassify rooms would be a good idea."
Charlie Taylor, branch secretary of the Socialist Party in Derby, said that a first meeting for bedroom tax opponents had been held in Chaddesden, with another scheduled for Allenton.
He said: "We need to get as many people on board as possible and link up with other groups which are also campaigning against it.
"It's a case of lobbying the council and Government and councillors and MPs at their surgeries. I think it's an unfair tax on the most vulnerable people in our society."
Mr Taylor said he did not expect the city council to reclassify bedrooms for everyone affected because "properties were different". He called on the city council to adopt a "no evictions policy around the bedroom tax".
Councillor Baggy Shanker, cabinet member for housing and advice, said he had asked for council officers to draw up a report on the topic of reclassifying bedrooms, due for completion in a couple of weeks.
But he said: "The situation with some other councils is quite different to Derby's. Where it's being done is where there are some quite different properties in predominantly high-rise flats.
"Where they are struggling to let two-bedroom flats, councils are redesignating them as one bedroom as one rent payment is better than none.
"I've asked for a report to be drawn up about how we could implement such a policy. But I don't think it's something that we in Derby can do on a large scale without taking a huge hit on our housing revenue account which would ultimately mean less repairs and fewer new builds."
The Allenton meeting of the campaign group will take place at 7pm, on Wednesday, June 19, at Osmaston Community Centre, Moor Lane.
