The bedroom tax is helping to reduce child deprivation, ministers have claimed.
A new draft child poverty strategy for 2014 to 2017, which was launched by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and education minister David Laws yesterday, lists the ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ as one of the measures that is helping to improve the living standards of low-income families.
Tens of thousands of people claiming housing benefit have been forced to “take action” and find work or move to a smaller home because of the so-called “bedroom tax”, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
Figures released by the Government show a 9 per cent fall in the number of housing benefit claimants facing a reduction in their housing benefit due to the removal of the spare room subsidy.
Two thirds of households affected by the bedroom tax cannot find money to pay their rents, according to the National Housing Federation.
A survey of 183 housing associations carried out for the Federation found that 66% of their residents hit by the bedroom tax are in rent arrears, with more than a third (38%) reported to be in debt because they were unable to pay the bedroom tax.
At least 3,000 tenants in the West Midlands are set to be eligible for rebates after having benefits wrongly cut because they have extra bedrooms.
Figures obtained from councils by the BBC show thousands have been wrongly charged the under-occupancy penalty - dubbed the "bedroom tax" by critics - since April last year.
A Labour MP's bill calling for the bedroom tax to be scrapped will get a second reading after successfully passing its first hurdle.
Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery (pictured) yesterday introduced a 10-minute bill on scrapping the controversial under-occupation penalty, which was backed by 226 votes to one.
Two thirds of households hit by the bedroom tax have fallen into rent arrears, according to new research published today.
An Ipsos MORI survey of 183 housing associations carried out for the National Housing Federation found that 66% of their residents affected by the controversial policy are struggling to pay their rent, with more than a third (38%) reported to be in debt because they were unable to pay the bedroom tax.
Changes in housing benefit payments affecting disabled people could cost the public purse millions of pounds in Wales, a housing association has said.
Wales & West Housing (WWH) said many disabled tenants may be forced to move because of the so-called "bedroom tax".
A right-wing Tory politician has said that the controversial bedroom tax should be extended to include pensioners within its net.
Julian Brazier, MP for Canterbury, has claimed he is unhappy that pensioners are exempt from the widely ridiculed under-occupancy policy, and that such a move would "free up accommodation for young families".
A MUM has been ordered to pay bedroom tax – even though the tiny room is a vital haven for her severely disabled daughter.
Dawn Lennon’s girl Kelly Marie, 28 – who is blind and unable to walk or talk – relies on the sensory room, which contains a soft ball pit and is used to store her wheelchairs.
A third of disabled applicants have been refused support from a government fund designed to give them temporary financial help to cope with cuts to their benefit income as a result of the bedroom tax, a survey claims.
Ministers have persistently rejected arguments that the bedroom tax discriminates against disabled people by arguing that the availability of discretionary housing payment (DHP) grants to vulnerable households fulfils their duties under equality laws.