A DISABLED Sale woman who moved home to ease her chronic illness has slammed ‘ridiculous’ social housing policies that have seen her handed a £200 rent increase.

Karen Ellison has to wake up an hour early to take various drugs so she can endure living with fibromyalgia – an affliction causing widespread pain all over the body, necessitating a walking stick and wheelchair.

Having lived in a Trafford Housing Trust property in Derbyshire Avenue, Stretford, for eight years, her worsening mobility and THT's inability to adapt her home, led her to move to a different THT property in Exmouth Road, Sale, last month.

“The bathroom in the previous house was on a separate landing. It meant I had a painful walk up and down stairs each time I needed to use it,” explained the 41-year-old, who was then amazed to find she was being classed as a ‘new’ tenant and liable to pay an ‘affordable rent supplement’.

Despite swapping a three-bed semi-detached for a three-bed terrace, the married mother of two has seen her rent increase from £440 to £633 a month, or £43.80 a week.

The ‘affordable rent supplement’ is calculated at 80 per cent of the property’s market rentable value.

As tenants move out of trust properties, the rent is recalculated and the supplement added to properties with two or more bedrooms.

The only benefits Karen’s household receives is her disability living allowance, and she now feels her family would be better off if her husband wasn’t employed full time.

“I feel that it’s very unfair,” she said. “At first I thought the trust were going to do something about it. Now I just feel as if I’m being penalised.

“The thing is, they’re not bringing properties up to the levels you’d expect from private rent.

“If the increase had been gradual and they said it was going to go up each year above inflation, then I could have accepted that. But to hit me all at once with this increase is ridiculous.”

A spokesman for Trafford Housing Trust said: “As an organisation that builds new homes, the trust receives a grant from the government. In addition, to support the development of new homes, the government requires that rents on some properties are charged at a higher rate.

“Existing customers who move to another property and new customers pay rent in line with these government guidelines. Ms Ellison moved into one of these properties on Exmouth Road.”

The spokesman said Karen underwent a ‘rigorous process’ with the trust to ensure the rent would be affordable for her and the new rental amount was agreed by both parties.

They added: “We now understand that, for reasons outside of the trust’s control, Ms Ellison’s circumstances will be changing later in the year.

“We take the financial wellbeing of all customers very seriously and will be providing support to Ms Ellison to minimise the difficulties that could arise from these changes.”