28th
Jul 2021
A group of protesters took part in Oxford’s largest ever housing rally against agents and landlords ‘discrimination’ by not housing benefit tenants in spite of the existing UK equality laws.
Over a year ago there was the first landmark court ruling in England stating that housing benefit discrimination was unlawful, however despite this prospective tenants on Universal Credit are still being turned down across Oxford.
The local branch of ACORN organised the city protest after several other rallies against local estate agents who are purported to operate a ‘No DSS’, 'no benefits’ or ‘no Universal Credit’ tenants, which the local paper covered.
Although ‘DSS’ is an outdated term as the government agency was replaced twenty years by the Department for Work & Pensions in 2001, it is still very much used to describe prospective tenants on housing benefit or Universal Credit.
ACORN states that methods used by estate agencies to ‘discriminate’ against benefit recipients include the obvious policies, lesser known tactics range from exclusionary insurance company rules, over the top guarantor parameter requests, or simply shielding landlords from DSS tenants by not informing them of this type of candidate.
Prior to the protest and besides calling for residents support, ACORN’s campaign managed to achieve cross-party support as the rally was attended by trade union representatives and local councillors.
Acorn spokesperson Niamh Simpson gave details of who these practices target: “People who receive universal credit or housing benefits are ordinary people and often key workers like nurses, shop workers, delivery drivers.
“They are our families, carers, our parents and grandparents, and include people living with disabilities, or with young dependents.
“These letting agents would rather see ordinary working class individuals and families sleep on the streets or on sofas than in the readily available rooms in their properties.
“And that is why we, as a community, are coming together to demand an end to these unlawful practices.”
The rally took place on Saturday 24th July at 1pm in Manzil Road Park.
Richard Merrick of PIMS, said: “Unfortunately in some cases where councils criticise landlord discrimination, they themselves are in fact guilty of this because they only house vulnerable people, not families who have an income and can afford to actually pay their rent ”
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