Grandmother strangled to death after taking in a homeless man to avoid bedroom tax

A homeless man has be found guilty of strangling a grandmother to death after she invited him into her home.

In a cruel twist of fate, 61-year-old Anna Maria Thomas had asked Felix Gutierrez-Cortez, 34, to live with her as a carer in return for the shelter so she could avoid the bedroom tax.

Gutierrez-Cortez, who was regularly seen around Clapham Junction station in South London, called an ambulance to the home of Ms Thomas in December 2013, where paramedics discovered her decomposing body.

The court heard how Mr Gutierrez-Cortez had strangled her to death three days earlier.

She was found with a blood soaked pillow under her head, and her eyes were reportedly bulging out of her head.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/06/grandmother-strangled-to-death-after-taking-in-a-homeless-man-to-avoid-bedroom-tax-5091886/

Are Cameron and Co going to get down on their bended knees and apologise to this ladies relatives after the bedroom tax forced her into doing this and got her killed, because it was always obvious it was going to happen to someone? No, of course they are not, because they don't give a flying fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh well...one less pension to pay out on....

That will bring tears of joy to the tory boy's eyes

I seem to remember Sphinx handing out advice that those that are struggling to pay the Bedroom Tax should take in a lodger - in her capacity as an unofficial benefits adviser that is.

This is a reminder of just how ridiculous that advice is.

Oh no that's awful!

But tbh sassy, because of the housing shortage the bedroom tax seemed like a good idea and in some ways it did make a lot of people give up bigger houses to those who needed them.
I don't think it fair that a couple are allowed to continue living in their three-bedroom house after all children have moved out, when there are young families crying out for bigger properties.

Perhaps the answer was not bedroom tax (even though it did free up alot of houses!) but something else entirely, I don't know what?

Bedroom tax did not free up a lot of houses, because there were never smaller propeties for people to move to, they were told it was a terrible idea from the beginning, the disabled suffered the most with it. Crap idea that has caused untold misery.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so bloody mad at this bloody useles piece of shit government and their condescending, stamp on decent people policies.

risingsun wrote:Bedroom tax did not free up a lot of houses, because there were never smaller propeties for people to move to, they were told it was a terrible idea from the beginning, the disabled suffered the most with it.  Crap idea that has caused untold misery.

I beg to differ! My friend was bidding on a bigger house (that's what you do now, you "bid" on a property) for four years and was coming thirty and forty in the housing list.

The council housing officer told her that when the new bedroom tax came in it would free up alot of properties, people were also offered "cash incentives" (dressed up as a "decorating allowance") if they moved to a smaller property too.
And it bloody worked!!
I watched lots of people I knew, including the friend, move out of their properties or move significantly up the list! I'm not kidding.

There were loads and loads of people advertising on Facebook for "house swaps due to bedroom tax"

So yes. It did work. It really really, did. I saw it with my own eyes.

eddie wrote:Oh no that's awful!

But tbh sassy, because of the housing shortage the bedroom tax seemed like a good idea and in some ways it did make a lot of people give up bigger houses to those who needed them.
I don't think it fair that a couple are allowed to continue living in their three-bedroom house after all children have moved out, when there are young families crying out for bigger properties.

Perhaps the answer was not bedroom tax (even though it did free up alot of houses!) but something else entirely, I don't know what?

BUT if that is "fair"

THEN surely the govt can "compusararily purchase" ANYONES home...say from a couple whos children have grown up, REGARDLESS of the fact that they OWN the property...

and FORCE them into a crappy 1 bed house with no garden in some slum somewhere.....

what ever happened to the idea that folks get "attached to their HOME"

that tyey dont want to have to junk all their "things"

are you saying that I am not entitled to my 3 bed + converted garage home

with a decent garden and thus workshop...


that I SHOULD be forced to chuck out all my radio and computer gear (after all thats what occupies one of te bedroom...AKA my "study")
and have all my animals FORCIBLY rehomed....or destroyed...
and of course our vehicles would have to be confiscated too...since most of those sort of places dont have parking for anything bigger than a push bike...and THAT is in your hall way...


and that me and the missus should be forced to live in a rabbit hutch somewhere in a terrace (or god forbid one of those disgusting "apartments") in some smelly end of some vile place known as a "town" (cos thats about the ONLY place you will find 1 bed properties)

perhaps we should just kill all the older folk with no kids left....


BLOODY RIGHT WHINGERS.....
of course its a well known fact to R?W ers that folks in "social housing" have NO interests, only fill the gardens with crap and are not suitable people to own animals....

PFFFFT (in capitals)

As 2/3 of the people affected by bedroom tax are the disabled who have to have a room for equipment, or a room for carers to stop, or have had alterations done to the house to help them etc, and they can't move.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/five-stories-harsh-realities-governments-bedroom-tax

So your friends Eddie just happen to come into the one third bracket, and Tory Councils were complaining they didn't have smaller properties for people to move to, the one's effected by people trying to move out of London (because they had zilch) were screaming the loudest.

It's a sh!t system that has caused misery for millions of people up and down the country as people end up in debt as they are unable to move due to the lack of housing availability.
By all means don't put people into houses that are larger than they need but don't punish people when they can't move because their just isn't enough properties available. Some of these people have been in their houses for many years and for a government to come along and tell them to move their arse is a disgrace.

The bedroom tax was a disaster foretold, but that won’t stop the misery it’s causing

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/02/12/the-bedroom-tax-was-a-disaster-foretold-but-that-wont-stop-the-misery-its-causing/#sthash.S2WkbJkQ.dpuf

whats wrong with having a few more suitable homes built and sold at "realistic" prices

a good start could be made by confiscating "2nd homes" owned almost exclusively by the overpaid under taxed....

Good idea Vic, damn 2nd homes when so many people don't have one.

Did anyone see 'Britains Housing Crisis' on ITV last night?