Good morning. Welcome back to Survival Guide. Isabella here.

What would you do if you had just weeks to find a new place to live? Your landlord has kicked you out, rent has skyrocketed and demand for accommodation has soared.

That’s the situation Debbie Graham, who we meet in this newsletter, finds herself in now. She faces homelessness after her landlord served her a no-fault eviction notice. She cannot afford anywhere else.

The Conservative government vowed to end no-fault evictions five years ago. And where are we now? People like Debbie are still getting kicked out of their rented homes with nothing but two-months notice.

That’s why protesters descended on government offices this month to hand housing minister Micheal Gove an enormous eviction notice. Read about that later on in the newsletter.

And to top it all off, council tax is rising this month. So we’re paying more to live in those homes which we could be forced to leave. We’ve got advice on getting help to pay your council tax if you head to the end… 

If you have a story to share, we want to listen. Get in touch at isabella.mcrae@bigissue.com or share your story here.

Debbie's story: 'I was shocked'

Debbie is in a race against time to avoid homelessness this month. 

The 54-year-old is desperately searching for a new place to live after receiving a Section 21 notice in February. She has until April 26 to find somewhere.

The part-time mental health support worker, who suffers with arthritis, says she now expects to be sofa surfing while her 20-year-old son stays with his grandmother after giving up on finding another private rented home.

“I was shocked when I got the eviction notice,” Debbie says. “I was upset because I knew I would only have two months to find a new home, which isn’t a long time. It’s not enough time at all.”

Read Debbie’s story.

In case you missed it

It's five years and four PMs since Tory vow to ban no-fault evictions. Why are we still waiting? Theresa May announced that no-fault evictions would be scrapped on 15 April 2019 - but not much has happened since. Here’s more.

'It's an epidemic': 1.4 million workers trapped in insecure jobs are stuck in precarious rented homes. People like pregnant mum-to-be Maria are struggling to make ends meet thanks to insecure work that leaves them vulnerable to rent rises. Read her story.

Is the cost of living crisis over and will prices in the UK ever come down? Inflation fell to 3.2% in the year to March 2024, down from 3.4% the month before. That’s the lowest level in two and a half years. Does this mean the cost of living crisis is over? Find out.

Long-term sickness cannot be fixed by tightening 'harsh' disability benefits system, experts warn. The government plans to make the benefits system more punitive, but that could have the adverse impact of pushing people further away from work. Read more.

'Consign it to history': Sadiq Khan pledges to end rough sleeping in London by 2030. The promise comes after the number of people on London’s streets has soared to record highs. Get the story.

Millions of families on universal credit worse off by £1,400 a year, experts say: 'It needs to change'. That’s in comparison to the legacy benefits system in place a decade ago. Read about it.

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Micheal Gove served ‘eviction notices’ by protestors over rising homelessness

You wait all year for London activists to create massive “eviction notices” for housing minister Michael Gove and then two come along at once!

Up to 300 protesters and families from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth demonstrated outside government offices earlier this month, calling for the housing secretary to commit to a “council housing revolution” or get out of office.

The group didn’t manage to get the eviction notice through security as it was too big for the building’s security scanner.

Enter the London Renters Union. The group had their own four-metre-high eviction notice for Gove four days later in a protest outside the cabinet minister’s grace-and-favour property in St James’s in central London.

The group accused Gove of “protecting the profits of his mates in the landlord lobby” as the demonstration marked five years since the government promised to scrap no-fault evictions.

Read more.

Saving those coins: What to do if you can't afford council tax

Council tax has increased for many households across the UK. That means higher bills for families already struggling to cope with the impact of the cost of living crisis.

The majority of councils are expected to hike up council tax by the maximum amount of 4.99%. That works out at an extra £103 a year for an average property in Band D.

So what do you do if you can’t pay your council tax?

Don’t just stop paying because there can be serious consequences. Many councils have the powers to send bailiffs to your property if you are behind on bills, and it can carry a prison sentence of up to three months if you don’t pay.

If you cannot afford to pay your council tax, the first step is to see if your council might be able to help. You could get money off your council tax bill. Many councils have schemes to help people pay. Find out more here.