Labour's Robin Hoods in reverse

Labour's Robin Hoods in reverse

Imagine being out of work and getting by on £64.30 a week. It's not easy, but you can survive, just. You can forgo luxuries; cut down on basics; live in the cheapest parts of town. With some forward planning and some imagination, you can make every penny pull its weight.

Now imagine that through careful planning, you've managed to save yourself an extra £15 a week. Then someone says they want it back. Just like that, without any warning.

That's exactly what the government has in store for some of the poorest families in Britain.

At the moment, if you receive local housing allowance, you can shop around for a home. Find a property going for less than the rate of the allowance, and you can keep up to £15 of the difference. This gives those who need state support a little more control over their finances. It also, crucially, gives landlords an incentive to keep rent low to attract tenants.

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Yet quietly sneaked into the last budget was a proposal to axe this excess payment. If the government gets its way, some of those already struggling to get by on the lowest incomes will find themselves up to £780 a year worse off.

The government won't actually save any money. Landlords aren't stupid. Housing charities such as Crisis believe that once tenants have no incentive to choose cheaper properties, landlords will simply raise their rent so that the government has to pay them the extra instead.

The real dividing line between the parties now is who they choose to target when money is tight. Predictably, the Tories have already picked on some of the lowest-paid public sector workers. Labour now want to switch money from the poorest families in the country into the pockets of their landlords. It's Robin Hood in reverse, and a depressing verdict on the values of our two main parties.

The people who will lose out if the government has its way are an easy hit. They are not an organised lobby group. They do not know one another, campaign or organise meetings together. If your neighbour was on local housing allowance, you almost certainly wouldn't know. This is a group without a voice, which is precisely why the government thinks it can get away with squeezing them.

As the Guardian has pointed out, the changes will hit those who are poorer than those affected by the removal of the 10p tax rate, and it will hit them harder. This is why I am making as much noise as I can to stop this cruel proposal. If you feel strongly too, please ask your MP to sign my motion. Any Labour MP who still has a conscience should put their constituents first, by joining with us to defeat their government's latest assault on the poor.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009