FORMER Melody Maker journalist Karl Dallas, 84, started a hunger strike yesterday after being told he must repay more than £5,000 in benefits because of a blunder.

A Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) official turned up at lifelong activist Mr Dallas’s home in Bradford on Monday with letters demanding repayment because “his circumstances had changed.”

He was offered no further information other than that a DWP office had not received information at the right time.

“There has been no change in my circumstances since I retired from freelance journalism in 1998,” Mr Dallas said.

“As a lifelong activist for peace and justice I am not prepared to put up with this Kafkaesque treatment. I urge anyone else in a similar situation to join me in this campaign,” he said.

In 2003 Mr Dallas went to Iraq to act as a human shield to prevent bombing of schools and hospitals.

A DWP spokesman parped: “It is essential that claimants declare their income and savings accurately. This is to ensure that support is targeted at the people that need it most.”

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