[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Cameron said that the Bedroom Tax was introduced to free up under utilised council properties to house homeless families and not to save money (yeah, right).

In the main it has failed to meet this objective as most council properties were built to house families of various sizes and there simply isn't enough alternative accomodation designed for single people, yet these people are having their Housing Benefit/Universal Credit reduced. Even those ready and willing to move to smaller accomodation, but can't because none is available, are still penalised.

Many councils are finding it hard to let out properties which would attract a bedroom tax and they are lying empty, some have even demolished them to cut costs.

On top of the hardship imposed on people, it hasn't saved any money. Yes, it will have cut down on the benefits bill, but this has been outweighed by the extra cost of administration, appeals (many where the Government has lost), extra Discretionary Housing Payments etc.

One area where it is vastly more expensive is where a family cannot afford to top up their rent out of the (frozen since 2012) money that is meant to cover essential day to day living expenses. They get into arrears and are evicted, the same council then has a duty to find them emergency accomodation. This is usually a bed & breakfast costing hundreds of pounds a week, on top of the extra social costs of children having to travel miles to get to school or their parents actually having to give up work and claim extra benefits.

Private accommodation is much more diverse than the public sector, ranging from a room in a house to a detached house with a swimming pool. If someone chooses to move into an overlarge or expensive privately rented property, it could be argued that they should be expected to make up any shortfall. Previously, they wouldn't have known that their home would have had a reduction in the Housing Benefit payable for being above 'a reasonable market rent' or 'overlarge'*, so the Government introduced a system where they could get a decision about this before they accepted the tenancy. But would the landlord be prepared to wait, or would they simply let out the property to someone with the cash in their hand?

* Not all 'overlarge' private tenancies have their eligible rent reduced, as opposed to the arbitary Bedroom Tax imposed on council tenants. As a result of all the appeals and court cases arising, anyone currently paying the bedroom tax is advised to seek professional advice.

I suspect that your uncompromising stance on the benefit cuts is because you are a Tory supporter. It will be interesting to see if your position changes should we have a different party in Government in a few weeks.

I would just point out that the reduction in benefit to those with more bedrooms than they needed simply removed the anomoly that council tenants had been given an unfair advantage over private tenants, who were not allowed to claim that benefit.. The private tenants were doubly disadvantaged compared to tenants in social housing, because private tenants have to pay higher rents, often for worse accommodation.

There is no 'bedroom tax', as you know.