SIR – I attended a demonstration against the bedroom tax in Kidderminster and heard many stories about how people are going to be badly affected by this tax,face eviction,financial hardship or go without food to meet their rent.

This is a discriminatory tax because two thirds of people affected by it are disabled which means legal challenges are inevitable on discrimination and human rights grounds.

Some of the less informed would have us believe that it is about cutting benefits from the work-shy, or better use of housing stock for those in need. Neither of these things is true.

What is true is that with falling wages, 90 per cent of housing benefit claimants since 2009 are working people and, despite claims to the contrary, there are no social housing properties for them to move in to.

Since the 1980s, some 2.5 million social housing properties have been sold off and not replaced, while the number of new households has grown by five million.

This has created a housing shortage, fuelling a private sector credit-driven housing boom that has contributed to the banking collapse.

If people are forced out of their homes they may well end up homeless or in expensive private sector rental properties – both of which will end up costing taxpayers more.

One wonders why some tax dodging employers, or those who refuse to pay a living wage, meaning they are being subsidised through the benefit system by our taxes, are not coming under closer scrutiny by this Government? Tax dodging by such companies and wealthy individuals costs us £35 billion a year – about half the sum of the total cuts in 2012.

In my view, the Government would be better off legislating for a living wage so that employers pay a decent salary to reduce the need for people to claim benefits; and implementing a system to ensure rents are fair and affordable.

I call upon all housing associations in Worcestershire, in conjunction with local councils, not to evict any tenant who gets into arrears as a result of this tax.

It is the civic and patriotic duty of our public authorities to do this and protect our most vulnerable citizens.

STEPHEN BROWN

Wyre Forest Green Party Stourport