GREATER MANCHESTER NATIONAL FRONT.: Bedroom Tax

Thursday 27 September 2012

Bedroom Tax

Welfare reforms will cut the amount of benefit that people can get if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home – find out how this will affect people.

The Government has said that it will introduce new size criteria for housing benefit claims in social housing. This will apply from April 2013 to tenants of working age.

The power to do this is contained in the Welfare Reform Act, which received Royal Assent on 8th March 2012.

What do the changes mean?

The size criteria in the social rented sector will restrict housing benefit to allow for one bedroom for each person or couple living as part of the household, with the following exceptions:

Children under 16 of same gender expected to share
Children under 10 expected to share regardless of gender
Disabled tenant or partner who needs non resident overnight carer will be allowed an extra bedroom

Who will be affected?

All claimants who are deemed to have at least one spare bedroom will be affected. This includes:

Separated parents who share the care of their children and who may have been allocated an extra bedroom to reflect this. Benefit rules mean that there must be a designated ‘main carer’ for children (who receives the extra benefit)
Couples who use their ‘spare’ bedroom when recovering from an illness or operation
Foster carers because foster children are not counted as part of the household for benefit purposes
Parents whose children visit but are not part of the household
Families with disabled children
Disabled people including people living in adapted or specially designed properties.

How much will people lose?

The cut will be a fixed percentage of the Housing Benefit eligible rent. The Government has said that this will be set at 14% for one extra bedroom and 25% for two or more extra bedrooms.

The Government’s impact assessment shows that those affected will lose an average of £14 a week. Housing association tenants are expected to lose £16 a week on average.

How many people will see their benefit cut?

The proposal will affect an estimated 660,000 working-age social tenants – 31% of existing working-age housing benefit claimants in the social sector. The majority of these people have only one extra bedroom.

How will the bedroom tax operate under Universal Credit?

There are some differences between how the bedroom tax will operate under housing benefit (from April 2013) and under Universal Credit when it is introduced. These differences are summarised in the table below.

From April 2013	Under Universal Credit
Those over State Pension Credit age will not be affected, including where one member of a couple is over.	Mixed age couples - both will need to be over pension age to not be affected by the bedroom tax. Those where one is already in receipt of Pension Credit will however be protected.
Non-dependant deductions (NDD): six separate rates varying by income and under 25s on benefit are exempt.	One, flat-rate Housing Cost Contribution (HCC). All under 21s are exempt from HCC.
Non-dependants: couples get one room between them. They pay the NDD unless both are exempt.	Each adult non-dependent gets a room. Each pays the HCC unless exempt.
Lodgers get a room but income is taken into account and deducted pound for pound from benefit apart from first £20.	No room allowance but any income from lodgers is disregarded.
In joint tenancy cases the bedroom tax can still apply.	Bedroom tax not applied in joint- tenancy cases.
Protection on death for up to 52 weeks.	Benefits run-on for 3 months.
13 week protection where the tenant could previously afford the rent and Housing Benefit has not been claimed in the last 52 weeks.	Size criteria applies immediately.