The Eastland’s Homes housing association caused a massive furore yesterday when it published advice in its monthly newsletter advising its tenants to give up some of life’s luxuries if they were worried about the effect of the forthcoming “bedroom tax” on their household budget.
Their not so sage advice: ‘Can you really afford Sky, cigarettes, bingo, drinks and other non-essentials?’ was roundly considered to be patronising and insensitive by residents and dozens took to social networking sites to complain about the insult.
Outrage from housing association residents
One resident commented: “It is deeply patronising. Talk about stereotyping those who live in former council homes. They should be ashamed.”
Another said: “This is patronising nonsense. People are having a tough time as it is without having to be fed this nonsense. Anyone who heard this would think we were living in the lap of luxury. Many of us have had to make severe cutbacks, and we’re not all sat there with our tins of lager watching daytime telly.”
We apologise for the offence caused…
In an attempt to pour oil over troubled waters and do some belated damage limitation, the representatives from the housing association quickly went online and published an apology.
“Our message is that we are here to help wherever possible and we’re sorry if we worded that clumsily.”
The housing association insisted they were just trying to help residents, out of concern that some were likely to fall into arrears once Housing Benefit is cut for those deemed to have more bedrooms than they need in their rented accommodation.
