HOUSING activists targeted a series of east London estate agents this weekend in a call to end renting discrimination against people on benefits.

Dozens of people picketed letting agents in Hackney as part of the launch of the Yes DSS campaign — a reference to the long-defunct Department of Social Security (DSS), which has has become shorthand for benefits recipients.

The initiative follows the discovery by members of the housing group Hackney Renters (Digs) that only one studio flat in the borough was listed as available to people claiming housing benefit.

Out of 50 local estate agents surveyed by the group most argued that, either due to company policy or landlords’ preference, people relying on benefits would not be accepted.

“For Hackney’s landlords and agents, ‘DSS’ seems to signify a whole social and moral category of people who are deemed to be undesirable tenants,” Digs said in a statement.

“Underneath their stigma is a desire to bring in wealthier tenants who are willing and able to pay the ever-rising rents.

“At Digs, we believe that everyone should have a decent, secure and genuinely affordable home regardless of how much they earn.

“We also believe that people shouldn’t be forced out of areas like Hackney simply so that landlords and estate agents can make greater profits.”

Campaigners say the problem is a nationwide one.

Several women took the megaphone to share their house-hunting and renting horror stories during the Digs protest, which started outside Hackney Town Hall.

East End Sisters Uncut member Petra Hussein told the Star that rising rents were leaving victims of abusive relationships particularly vulnerable to their partners.

“The most unsafe time for a survivor of domestic violence is the moment they attempt to leave the perpetrator.

How can women leave when they have nowhere to go?” she asked.

“There are numerous ways the government and landlords are actively withholding safety from women.

“These include cuts to refuges and other domestic violence services, a lack of council housing and seemingly infinite obstacles making it difficult or impossible to privately rent, such as landlords not accepting DSS, and the racist, sexist right to rent, in which landlords and lettings agents act as border control to migrant women.”