SIR,

I am a town councillor and foster carer in Chepstow and am to be hit with the 'bedroom' tax in April.

I live in a Housing Association (HA) three-bedroom home. One of the rooms is a boxroom used as a study and tv room for my foster child, who suffers with ADHD/ borderline Aspergers Syndrome.

I gave up a job as a self-employed groundworker to foster the child, saving the Local Authority thousands of pounds in the process, only to be told that as of 1st April the housing benefit I receive will be cut by 14 per cent.

This means that the contribution I must make has risen from £40 a month to £84 a month. As you can see,an increase of more than 100 per cent.

And this for a boxroom, that if the house was privately rented, could not be classed as a bedroom at all, but a storeroom.

The government has left it to the landlords to decide what defines a bedroom, and as such are being allowed to fleece the poorer members of our communities.

The WA have issued guidelines for social landlords, the Welsh Housing Quality Standards (WHQS) and the room would be below the threshold to call it a bedroom.

But these are guidelines only. The Housing Act 1985 is law, and under this legislation the room is only suitable for a child under 10 years of age.

The HAs are saying to work more hours, take in a lodger or move a family member in. As a foster carer I am self-employed, and have no spare time to work more hours.

As for a lodger? Impossible to find a 10-year-old lodger.

And the lodger would need to be CRB checked. Moving family in? Both mine and my wife's family have homes of their own and besides, who would want to lodge in a room barely big enough for a single bed?

We are planning a public meeting to discuss the issues this biased tax will have on the communities of Monmouthshire,and to petition the government to think again about how the austerity cuts are hitting the lowest earners of our communities.

The meeting will be held at Rockfield Community Centre on the 18th March at 3pm. I hope to see many of your readers there.

Councillor Dale Rooke

(Chepstow Town Council)