I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his enormous generosity in giving way. I have a schedule from a constituent that details his personal means. Until the beginning of this month he had £21.25 a week left for food and clothing after paying his utility bills and allowing £6 for bus fares. After the introduction of the empty bedroom tax, which will cost £10.31, he will end up with under £11 a week for food. Some problem could happen along the lines mentioned by my hon. Friend, but assuming that nothing else is needed, he will have just £11 a week. We would not want that desperate situation to happen in a developing country, let alone in Britain. How can we justify giving money to the richest when people are in despair and poverty?
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Geraint Davies
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Thursday, 18 April 2013.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Finance (No. 2) Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
561 c526 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2014-03-31 12:20:52 +0100
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-04-18/13041826000469
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-04-18/13041826000469
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-04-18/13041826000469