Roy forced to stay in five bedroom home
Roy Scott says he is being forced to stay in a five-bedroom house that a family should be living in because homes are not being built for those with disabilities.
The 41-year-old, who was left paralysed after a motorbike accident when he was just 19, says he would like nothing more than to move into a bungalow, but despite being on the waiting list, there are simply none available in the Oswestry area.
Instead he has to pay £30 a week 'bedroom tax' from his disability living allowance because he is living in a home deemed too big for him.
Mr Scott made his home in Oswestry after spending six months in the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and 18 months at the Transhouse rehab accommodation in the town.
Unable to find a private rented adapted bungalow himself, the then Oswestry Borough Council housing authority found Mr Scott a specially built home in Harlech Close, the only one available with a downstairs bedroom and a 'wet room'.
"At the time the housing officer explained that, although it was a five-bedroom house there was nothing smaller available," he said.
He said that he slept in the downstairs bedroom, while his carer used one of the bedrooms upstairs and another was used for his medical equipment.
"I would love to be able to downsize and see a family in need move into this house," he said.
"Through no fault of my own I am having to pay £30 a week of my disability living allowance on the bedroom tax."
"It is such a waste of a house and it is also costing me money to head when I don't need such a big home."
Mr Scott is also concerned about the impending re-evaluation of his Personal Independence Payment.
"Why do severely disabled people have to go through this every three years. Believe me I would like nothing more than to gain feeling again and be able to get a job and not have to have my benefit. I am a prisoner in my own body and to be subjected to all this red tape is sometime just too much."
