Tenant slashes wrist in housing office over bedroom tax

TORMENTED former miner attempted suicide in front of staff because he couldn't cope with running up rent arrears as a result of the hated tax.

Lawrence after his arms were bandaged

A MAN driven to despair by the bedroom tax attempted suicide in a council housing office yesterday.

Staff looked on in horror as tormented Lawrence Keane slit his wrists in a reception area after asking for help with rent arrears he had run up as a result of the hated tax.

The vulnerable 58-year-old said: “I stood up and asked them if they wanted my blood because that’s all I had left to give. I started hacking at both my arms.”

Former miner Lawrence made the suicide bid at Lochgelly Community Centre in Fife at 9am.

After cutting his arms, he stood with his arms at his side, letting blood drip on to the floor.

He was treated at Victoria Infirmary in Kirkcaldy and released.

Lawrence, who suffers from severe depression and anxiety attacks, fought back tears as he told how the bedroom tax and rent arrears pushed him over the edge.

Surrounded by his family, he said: “I got a letter from the council last week and I have stayed inside for 10 days worrying about it.

“It told me I owed a lot of money and that my rent was going up £28 a fortnight because I had an empty room in my flat.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was getting more and more angry and stressed about it. I woke, got a vegetable knife and went to the community centre.”

Lawrence, who has a grown-up son, was speaking with the full support of his furious family.

In the letter, Lawrence was told he owes Fife Council £399 and that his rent for his two-bedroom flat has increased because he lives alone.

Like many others, he just can’t afford to pay the bedroom tax.

Fridge is almost empty

 
Lawrence is on disability allowance and receives a small miner’s pension. Once he’s paid his utility bills, he has very little left to live on.

He has lived alone in his ground-floor flat for 14 years. He has few possessions and his tiny home is sparsely decorated and furnished.

He rarely drinks and “treats himself” to a roll-up cigarette and a small bottle of beer “every now and again”.
When our reporter visited, Lawrence’s fridge was virtually empty.

He didn’t even have tea bags or milk to make a hot drink.

Last night, his brother Michael, 60, and sister-in-law Harriet, 57, said the bedroom tax and welfare cuts were hitting vulnerable people the hardest.

Michael said: “We support Lawrence as best as we can. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d succeeded in his suicide attempt.

“The extra rent he was asked to pay was the final straw. He was so stressed he couldn’t even tell us about it.
“We’ve been trying to get him help for weeks – medically, psychologically and through the council – but no one has really listened.

“How many Lawrences will it take for the Government to realise how dangerous and unfair the bedroom tax is?”

Harriet added: “We asked the council to move him to a single-bedroom bungalow but they haven’t.
“They now hit him with this new rent demand.

“The bedroom tax targets the weakest in society. Lawrence and other vulnerable people like him are just names and numbers on a computer screen.”

The depute leader of the council where Lawrence lives yesterday agreed that the bedroom tax is wrong.

David Ross said of Lawrence’s suicide bid: “This was a very distressing incident. Our thoughts are with the person and we will be providing all the support we can in the days ahead.

“It would be wrong to comment on any individual’s personal circumstances.We respect their right to confidentiality.

“What we can say is that we are seeing an increasing number of people facing serious financial worries, many of which are caused by welfare reform.

“We’re doing all we can to support them.”

The Fife Council boss added: “I believe many of these reforms are fundamentally wrong, especially the bedroom tax hitting many of the poorest and most vulnerable Fifers.

“Although Fife Council’s approach to discretionary housing payments is oneof the most generous in Scotland, the funding available and the regulations set by the Department for Work and Pensions that the council is forced to work under, are inadequate to deal with the level of need and the harsh effects of welfare reform.

“I firmly believe that the Government should scrap these so-called reforms and the insidious bedroom tax now before more people are driven to such desperate acts as happened today in Lochgelly.”

Daily Record