The recent Government defeat on the Lib Dem’s amendment to the unpopular Bedroom Tax is an appropriate moment to review the law on this controversial issue and summarise its impact since its introduction in April 2013.

The Bedroom Tax applies only to social housing tenants, in other words council and housing associations tenants.

The rule that was introduced in April 2013 limited the amount of housing benefit that could be claimed with reference to the number of bedrooms in the property.

It is not actually a tax. It is a reduction of housing benefit.

Our top stories

Under the rules, if you are under-occupying, your total eligible rent for housing benefit purposes was reduced by 14 per cent if you have one extra bedroom and 25 per cent if you had two or more extra bedrooms. In order that housing benefit staff could assess whether so-called under occupation was taking place, rules were introduced allowing one bedroom for every adult couple, one bedroom for any other adult aged over 16 or over, one bedroom for any two children of the same sex aged under 16 and one for any two children aged under 10.

Housing benefit would not be paid for any bedrooms in excess of the above.

The way this worked in practice was for example, if you had one “spare’’ bedroom and the rent is £100 per week, only £86 counts when your housing benefit is assessed. You have to pay £14 yourself. If you have two or more spare bedrooms and your rent is £100 per week, only £75 counts when your housing benefit is assessed. You have to pay at least £25 yourself.

There were however a number of exemptions and rules to deal with the many households who do not fit neatly into the above definitions, and it became very complicated.

A room would be exempt from the tax if it was occupied by an overnight carer.

In addition, people who are approved foster carers were allowed an additional room whether or not a child had been placed with them, or they are between placements, so long as they have a foster child or become an approved foster carer in the last 12 months. This will also include a housing benefit claimant who is in the process of adopting a child or has had the child placed with them by the local authority before the adoption order is made.

For students away from home their room was not counted provided they were away for less than 52 weeks and intend to return home. A severely disabled child who needed their own room, is not required to share and housing benefit must take into account the severity of a child’s disability and how regularly another child’s sleep would be disturbed if they shared a room. If a child was a member of the Armed Forced, then Bedroom Tax shouldn’t be paid for the room usually occupied by that child who is serving away, provided they intend to return home. Bedroom Tax would however have to be paid on a bedroom used by a child visiting a divorced or separated parent, and by couples who use separate bedrooms because of illness or disability and/or disabled adults to store medical equipment. Not surprisingly the Bedroom Tax also found itself ripe territory for legal challenges and over the last 12 months the decisions have come in thick and fast. These involved challenges to whether a room is eligible to be included because of the size of the room and the use of the room.

In an Oxford case, the adult daughter of the appellant was severely disabled and required constant day and night care. Respite care of 41 days a year required an additional room. Failure to take this into account was held by the tribunal to amount to Article 14 of the Human Rights Act discrimination. In another case, a disabled mother was living with an adult daughter with autism in a three-bedroomed property. The third bedroom was used twice a week by the younger sister staying overnight to provide care for the elder daughter. The tribunal again accepted this would be unjustifiable discrimination under Article 14 of the Human Rights Act.

The main problem for the Government was the flawed rationale behind the policy which was an attempt to move people who were living in under occupied accommodation to smaller properties and release the larger properties for other families to move into. There were simply not enough smaller properties for people to move to.

Recent amendment to the legislation now exempts tenants who cannot find a smaller property.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.