Society daily: Call to axe bedroom tax 'a disgrace'

We've changed email address. Please add us to your safe sender list. Having trouble viewing this email? Society daily 11.09.13 Call to axe bedroom tax 'a disgrace' Claire Burke theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 September 2013 07.43 EDT Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur on housing, whose recommendation that the bedroom tax be axed has angered Grant Shapps. Photograph: Martin Hunter Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • NHS problems could wreck coalition election chances, says ex-No 10 adviser • Jeremy Hunt orders same-day GP appointments to ease A&E burden • Universal credit hits new snag as David Cameron casts doubt on timetable • Jack Monroe: Austerity works? We need to keep making noise about why it doesn't • UK unemployment rate falls to 7.7% • Two men arrested in north Wales care homes abuse inquiry • Ed Miliband's TUC speech receives lukewarm reception All today's SocietyGuardian stories In today's SocietyGuardian section • Growing old with HIV • NHS revalidation: piles of paper can't prove a GP's worth • Winterbourne View: learning disability providers have learned a crucial lesson • Ending poverty pay in the public sector is just the start • NHS payback time as charges for out-of-hospital care ruled unfair • Frontline founder: 'Social work needs life-changing professionals' Jobs of the week • Executive director, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders: "You will be a strong leader with experience of directing and managing organisations, with the ability to generate high performance in others." • Deputy director of operations, Institute of Cancer Research • Independent chair, Portsmouth safeguarding children board • Commissioning Officer, children and early years, Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs On the Guardian Professional Networks • Benefit cuts put frontline housing staff in danger, says Victor da Cunha • The NHS is a national treasure. We must continue to guard it, says Michael West • Can social workers tell if a child is at risk online, asks Ken Corish • Simon Birch on community ownership and the future of seaside piers • John Lehal on why local enterprise partnerships need to be 60% business people On my radar ... • The bedroom tax. The United Nations' special investigator on housing has told the British government it should scrap the bedroom tax, after hearing "shocking" accounts of how the policy was affecting vulnerable citizens during a visit to the UK. Raquel Rolnik said the policy could constitute a violation of the human right to adequate housing, the Guardian reports. Here's the press release from the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights. However Tory party chairman, Grant Shapps, has described her call for the government to scrap the tax as an "absolute disgrace" One of the people Raquel Rolnik met during her visit was Carol Robertson, who wants to remain in the two-bedroom flat where she has lived for 37 years, and where she brought up her two children, writes Amelia Gentleman. Robertson has made plans for how to cope with losing £13 a week because of the new spare room subsidy and told Rolnik: It sounds preposterous, but I think people will save on the electricity and use candles. I won't put my lights on; I will just buy candles. Writing for SocietyGuardian Nicole Gordon, a 20-year-old university student argues that the bedroom tax will not save money: The government's pledge to save £500m sounds increasingly unconvincing. There were no savings to the taxpayer from our move. Living in the new property, owned by a housing association in the neighbouring borough of Waltham Forest, our monthly rent is £96 higher, excluding council tax. Although Mum is now working, if she were made redundant again, which could easily happen, all our rent would be covered by housing benefit as we now occupy the correct number of rooms – costing the government more than if we had stayed put in our underoccupied house. • The education secretary, Michael Gove, who has been accused of "insulting" people who use food banks after he suggested they were often responsible for their own predicaments, the BBC reports. Gove had said during his departmental question session with MPs: I had the opportunity to visit a food bank in my constituency only on Friday and I appreciate that there are families who do face considerable pressures. It's often as a result of some decisions that have been taken by those families which mean that they are not best able to manage their finances. Labour's Steve McCabe said Gove had "managed to be both insulting and out of touch". • Mental health. Andy Bell, deputy chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, blogs about this week's Panorama programme on the use of police custody in mental health emergencies, which he said "painted a disturbing and distressing picture". He writes: While Panorama made clear that there are no easy solutions to the problems it laid bare, it was also plain to see that continued under-investment in mental health care is making it harder for anyone to improve the situation. • An investigation into government disability assessments is to be started by Bradford council – the first local authority believed to be doing so, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports. The council has branded the tests "unfair" and could hold public hearings as it investigates the effects of the work capability assessment on vulnerable people in the district. Other news • Telegraph: Help to Buy may have to be scrapped, Vince Cable warns • BBC: Social homes watchdog criticised over financial ratings • Independent: Toddlers to get flu vaccine in Jeremy Hunt's A&E overhaul • BBC: Heart attack technique 'could save lives' • Independent: Delaying your first baby? You could risk age-related infertility, say scientists • Public Finance: London 'hit hardest by cuts as UK state shrinks' • Community Care: Cameron lobbied to give social workers new safeguarding power • Public Finance: Welfare reforms will boost work incentives, IFS finds • Inside Housing: 14,000 'troubled families' lives turned around SocietyGuardian blogs Patrick Butler's cuts blog Sarah Boseley's global health blog SocietyGuardian on social media Follow SocietyGuardian on Twitter Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Follow Clare Horton on Twitter Follow Alison Benjamin on Twitter SocietyGuardian's Facebook page SocietyGuardian links SocietyGuardian.co.uk The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs SocietyGuardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: society@guardian.co.uk You are receiving this email because you are a Society Daily subscriber. 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