CAMPAIGNERS against the so-called bedroom tax met with affected residents last week.
Dearne councillor Ralph Sixsmith, who was at the meeting at the Golden Nugget Club, Goldthorpe, says he believes the government have been on a mission to 'vilify people on benefits' and that the bedroom tax is an extension of that.
And he warned people there is a discretionary payment for people who are struggling.
"The discretionary payment is there for people. We know what people can't afford but we need to know what they can afford," he said.
"The main problem is that people aren't talking until they've got into real problems but I understand that, that's human nature."
He added they had been told of one story where a disabled woman was being taxed for an extra room.
"The spare room was tiny and used for charging up her wheelchair. We got it squashed but the information came from David Cameron's office, not locally."
Another woman, who attended the meeting, but didn't wish to be named, said that she's been forced to resort to visiting food banks in the 'heat or eat' dilemma that has been brought about.
Campaigner Dave Gibson, of Barnsley Trade Council, helped organise the meeting. He said: "We welcome Barnsley Council's decision to oppose the bedroom tax and to call for its abolition but we think they need to do more.
"We want to see them declare a policy of no evictions for tenants in arrears because of the bedroom tax, and we would like them to declare that all so-called spare rooms smaller than 70 square feet should not count as bedrooms.
"The Tories are losing the argument over the bedroom tax. They wanted to use it to divide us between what they called strivers and skivers.
"But we believe our campaign is changing public opinion."
