The report on a recent protest against housing benefit changes (The Argus, December 16) states that Brighton Benefits Campaign organisers “claim loss of benefits for the long-term unemployed and people in council houses will affect up to 12,500 households in Brighton and Hove”.

Although the long-term unemployed and those living in council houses will be severely affected by the cuts, the figure of 12,500 households in Brighton and Hove relates to changes to Local Housing Allowance, which is paid solely to those who rent privately.

The large private rented sector means that Brighton and Hove will be hit harder by the changes than any other city in the South East, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

While the Government claims that housing benefit cuts will “help” those “trapped in worklessness”, the reality is that 80% of those in receipt of housing benefits are in work. If the Government really wishes to reduce the housing benefit bill, then it should take action to control the sky-high rents being charged by greedy landlords by re-enacting rent controls. It should also be building council houses instead of forcing the poorest into homelessness.

Brighton Benefits Campaign says that the benefits system is in all our interests, whether we are in receipt of benefits or not. If the sick and disabled are forced back into the labour market then this will exert downward pressure on wages.

If the unemployed can be forced to work to receive £65 Jobseeker’s Allowance a week – a third of the minimum wage – then employers will have little reason to hire workers at a higher rate. Ordinary people need to organise and fight back to ensure we don’t pay the price for a crisis we didn’t cause.

Tony Greenstein
Pip Tindall
Paul Tindall
Giuseppina Salamone
Jack Common
Sandra Moon
Sue Black
Jackie Large
Felton Shortall
Andrew Fishemann
Andy Barber
Rousel Hugo
Dan Dee
Brighton Benefits Campaign