Description

This poster reads 'Axe The Bedroom Tax Now! No evictions, cap rents not benefits, hands off Disability Living Allowance and the Independent Living Fund'. The text is capitalised, with some words in black against a white background, some in white against black, and some in white against red.

This is a poster that encourages local people to fight against evictions caused by the Bedroom Tax and different benefit cuts brought in under the UK coalition government's austerity policy in the early 2010s. The Bedroom Tax, or the Under-Occupation Penalty, was introduced in 2013. It reduces the amount of housing benefit a person can receive if their home is deemed to have a 'spare' bedroom. In many cases, rooms that have been specially adapted for disabled people's care have been considered 'spare' under the Bedroom Tax.

The poster also references the Independent Living Fund and Disability Living Allowance, both of which were forms of benefits for disabled people. Many disabled people’s lives were, and still are, severely impacted by the threat of losing vital benefits. Organisations like the Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation were set up to defend their rights, as well as those of all social housing tenants.

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Interpretation: I chose this poster because it captures a volatile moment in disability history. The benefits that the it refers to, Disability Living Allowance and the Independent Living Fund, are both no longer open to new claims. The Bedroom Tax, however, very much still exists today. I believe that the poster shines a light on how, though progress has been made by determined disabled people and their activism, there is much yet to be done to achieve equity... often due to barriers presented by our own government.

We have decided to feature it in Museum of Liverpool's Disability History Community Trail, part of my final output as Curating for Change Fellow here. It will be part of a case that celebrates local people's activism, alongside other stories of bravery and commitment to advancing powerful causes, such as Black Lives Matter, KnifeSavers and LGBTQ+ rights. People in Liverpool have campaigned against the Bedroom Tax, including hundreds of protestors taking their march to St George's Hall days before it was introduced in early 2013.

- Iris Sirendi, Curating for Change Fellow at the Museum of Liverpool