They came in their thousands ... the vulnerable, the suffering, the poor, the disabled – battling to beat the bedroom tax.
These were not militants. They were in wheelchairs, they walked with sticks, some wore Army uniforms, the Sunday People reports .
Around 13,000 protesters spoke with one voice yesterday as they joined the Sunday People campaign demanding an end to the hated bedroom tax.
Protests were held at 52 locations the length and breadth of the country, two weeks before Coalition plans to claw back housing benefit for "spare rooms" come into force on April 1.
Around 660,000 people in social housing will be hit – on the same day as a tax break for the super-rich comes in.
The average person will have to find £14 a week or move out.
And from Carlisle to St Austell, from Ipswich to Runcorn, the stories were the same yesterday – these people had neither rooms nor money to spare.
Janet Richards, 47, walked with difficulty to the protest in Croydon, South London.
She worked all her life until diabetes meant she had a leg amputated below the knee. The council gave her a two-bed flat after doctors said she would soon lose the second leg.
Although Janet often has a carer stay with her, the second bedroom now counts as a spare room. She said: "I already cut all the corners I can to get by on less than £100 a week but I've been told I have to find another £15.
"I have been too frightened to think about how I will cope. I'm terrified."
Pub barmaid Jackie Heale, 56, of Hebburn, South Tyneside, has worked all her life – and still does.
"I'm no scrounger," she said, proudly. "I would happily move to a smaller place but there just aren't any to be had.
"I feel desperate, and I'm already struggling to eat. I get £62 a week in housing benefit and income support to help me get by.
"The bedroom tax will cut that by £27.50 a week. My family have been round to feed me. Without them I don't know what I'd do."
Her local council has 7,000 people affected by the cut – and just 50 one-bed homes available to move them into.
In Newcastle, welder John Winn, 47, survives on £45 a week employment support after an industrial accident and many operations. He faces a demand for £15 of it if he stays in his current home.
He said: "I can't manage as it is. I have the heating on one hour a day, I never go anywhere, can't afford to do anything. I'm lucky to eat once a day.
"I'm separated from the mother of my two kids and have a two-bedroom council flat so they can stay with me every other weekend.
"But the council want me to get a lodger or move into a one-bed. Either way, in a few weeks, I won't be able to spend any time with my children."
Following months of campaigning during which the Sunday People has been in the forefront, the Government announced exemptions last week for foster parents and Army families.
Lib Dem minsters were criticised by their own MPs yesterday for not fighting the proposals.
The worst-hit part of the country is Manchester, where 50,000 people are being told to do the impossible – either find more money or move into a one-bedroomed flat that does not exist.
Among the 1,500 Manchester protesters was Afghanistan war veteran Cody Lachey, 29, who lived on the streets after he returned home with a wounded leg.
His council gave him a one-bedroom flat. But he will have to pay £676 extra a year after they reclassified it as a two-bed because of a box room.
He said: "I'd kill myself if I ended up back on the streets. I used to fight for the Government – now I'm fighting them."
In Oxford, Julia Jones, 59, one of those who wrote an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron in the Sunday People, said the policy "punished the sick, disabled and poor".
Those losing out were supported in the protests by people who think the tax is cruel.
Gina Ravens, 59, said: "Millionaire MPs have no idea what it's like to be hungry, cold or in constant pain."
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