{"id":9461,"date":"2016-08-05T14:09:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T13:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9461"},"modified":"2016-08-05T14:09:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T13:09:07","slug":"attack-on-poorest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9461","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Attack on poorest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The devastated father of a teenage boy who was killed in a head-on collision has spoken out after being cruelly charged the bedroom tax on his dead son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room.<\/p>\n

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Grieving Terry Fannon, from Tameside in Manchester, was penalised after his eighteen-year-old son, Thomas Hodson Fannon, died after his motorcycle was hit by quad bike rider Sam Edge, 20, last October.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after his son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death Mr Fannon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing benefit was sanctioned \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite a department of work pension (DWP) ruling that bereaved families should have a year before the hated tax is imposed.<\/p>\n

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The heartless breach only came to light during Edge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sentencing hearing for causing death by dangerous driving last week.<\/p>\n

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Mr Fannon, 44, told the Manchester Evening News<\/a>, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey knew my son was dead. I got a letter days after about the bedroom tax. I was in a trance afterwards I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question it for a while.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI feel sick. The room is still Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not changed it. But they said I had an extra room, it is just an extra worry. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave this house, I never can, it was Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all I have left of him.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aunt, Julie Fannon, told the paper she was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdisgusted\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that her brother was sanctioned.<\/p>\n

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She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care, they just want the money. Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death is killing my brother, and this was just an extra worry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Although the department of work pensions (DWP) set the rules for the bedroom tax, which was introduced in 2013 in an attempt to end what supporters call a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098spare room subsidy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for often vulnerable or disabled social housing tenants, it is left to local authorities to enforce it.<\/p>\n

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Following the court hearing a Tameside Council spokesperson admitted that \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba change in the amount of housing benefit reduction was made in error. As soon as we became aware of this a correction was made. Housing benefit is now being paid at the correct rate.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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North West Unite Community organiser Sheila Coleman offered her condolences to Mr Fannon and said his story highlighted \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe inhumanity of the current government.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSpare room subsidy?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call it what it is; an attack on the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Coleman said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite Community members voluntarily work to assist those subject to this cruel tax and campaign to abolish it. This legislation is contrary to equality and disability legislation and is, in our opinion, a human rights issue.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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To find out more about Unite Community click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The devastated father of a teenage boy who was killed in a head-on collision has spoken out after being cruelly charged the bedroom tax on his dead son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room.   Grieving Terry Fannon, from Tameside in Manchester, was penalised after his eighteen-year-old son, Thomas Hodson Fannon, died after his motorcycle was hit by quad bike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,199,232],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams bedroom tax blunder","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9462,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461\/revisions\/9462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}