Cut and run

A Traveller community in Suffolk has fought back against attempts to reduce the housing benefits it says it needs to survive. Earlier this month, Waveney District Council announced they were going to cap the benefit of residents from an average of £70 to £33.50 per week at the Kessingland site in Suffolk leaving residents to pay the shortfall.

Site manager, Jill Real said: “We received a letter saying the Rent Service had determined that the maximum benefit would decrease. The residents can’t afford to make up the shortfall in rent which means we would have to evict them or they would leave. Either way they could have ended up homeless.”

The residents held a peaceful protest outside council offices last week with one single mother, Natasha Lord, cradling her newborn baby.Waveney District Council have now informed the managers of the Kessingland site that the amount of housing benefit will not be reduced and will continue at the same average of £70 per week.

Some of the residents have lived on the site for a number of years and would have had nowhere to relocate if they were forced to leave.
Sherry Bacon, who has lived at the site for over ten years and has three children, said: “None of us are in a position to pay extra rent money.”

Although the site is privately run, the rents for the caravans - which range from about £65 to £75 a week - are set by Suffolk County Council.
Site manager Jill Real said: “A single person on Jobseekers receives about £50 a week so how would they be able to survive with a benefit cut? They would have been on the poverty line and I think this is against their human rights.”

Adrian Mills, the service manager from Waveney District Council said: “We have been in negotiations with the Kessingland traveller’s site, there isn’t an issue anymore and the benefit will continue. “We look at all sites and the rent that is charged because at the end of the day it’s the tax payers money. Everyone is satisfied now and the matter has been resolved.”

The Traveller Liaison office for Suffolk, Keren Wright, said: “All sites are rent capped if they are privately leased like Kessingland. The proposed reduction would have caused problems for residents as the shortfall would have been a hell of a lot of money to pay”

Ian Real, who has owned the site since 2001, said: “I’m pleased the matter has been resolved but it is a shame it hasn’t been sorted out sooner and that there wasn’t more help at hand. “It caused a lot of uncertainty and unrest and it is the first time I have seen all the site residents stand united when they protested last week.”