A DISABLED man who stores his wheelchair and mobility scooter in his 10ft by 6ft spare room says he is another victim of changes to the welfare state.
Christopher Eskrett, crippled by arthritis, insists the box room is the only place to store the equipment but says changes to rent under the new system will leave him £10.06 a week out-of-pocket.
Mr Eskrett, who has lived alone in his two-bed ground-floor flat for five years, says Hull City Council have offered to eventually move him into a smaller property.
But the father-of-one has been told no property is available and even if one was found, there would be no guarantee of space needed to store his mobility equipment.
Mr Eskrett, 60, of Clairbrook Close, off Anlaby Road, west Hull, said: "It doesn't make sense.
"There really is nowhere else to store the wheelchair and scooter.
"I waited 18 months to get this property and it suits my needs well. It's very quiet around here, so I'm reluctant to give it up.
"But £10.06 a week is a lot of money when you are disabled and living off benefits."
Mr Eskrett, who starts paying the extra under the new system dubbed the "bedroom tax" by Labour this month, said it would not make financial sense for the council to move him elsewhere as another flat would have to be converted to suit his needs.
Mr Eskrett says a co uncil representative suggested, if he were to move into a one-bed property, that he hired a garage to store his belongings.
"I'm disabled – I'd struggle to access it," he said. "And, in any case, renting a garage would cost me £8 a week, so I wouldn't be much better off."
Laura Carr, Hull City Council's neighbourhoods and housing manager, said: "For tenants affected by the welfare reform changes, we would want to talk through the options that may be available to them to establish how as a council we are best able to support them and if Mr Eskrett is happy for us to contact him, we will do so."
Nationally, 660,000 social housing tenants with a spare room began losing an average £14 a week this month.
Maggie Carnes, welfare rights supervisor at Hull Council of Disabled People, said the changes amount to discrimination.
She said: "We have had hundreds of calls from disabled people and their carers asking for help to make up the shortfall.
"The tax does not take people's individual circumstances into account."
