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‘Bedroom tax’ threat to struggling Leeds families
A controversial ‘bedroom tax’ could leave hard-pressed Leeds families up to £925 a year out of pocket.
The Government plans to cut housing benefit to people who are living in council or social housing which has a ‘spare’ bedroom.
Those with one empty room – even if it is in use much of the time – will lose 15 per cent of their benefit while those with two will lose 25 per cent.
Under the new rules, a room could be considered ‘empty’ if children have rooms of their own, rather than sharing, and separated parents who keep a room for their offspring to visit could also be penalised. People who are disabled, who often have larger homes because of the need for adaptations, could be especially hard hit.
And foster carers will receive a cut even where their bedrooms are occupied by foster children, who for housing benefit purposes, do not count as part of the ‘household’.
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Around 20,000 households in Leeds are living in social housing considered to be ‘under-occupied’.
According to figures from the National Housing Federation, the average weekly rent on a three-bed social housing property in Leeds is £71, which means affected families face losing between £10.65 and £17.75 a week – or up to £923 a year – when the changes are introduced in 2013.
Today experts warned that families face falling into debt or being forced to move home – even though there is a desperate shortage of social housing.
Leeds City Council’s housing boss Coun Peter Gruen (Lab, Cross Gates and Whinmoor) had deeper concerns.
He told the YEP: “We seem to live in a very harsh world under this Government. People are seen as chess pieces. The Government is shuffling those pieces around until they get ‘check mate’ – which seems to be someone’s misery.
“The people who caused these problems – the bankers – are not suffering. People who have had nothing to do with this are losing their jobs and benefits and the only one there to pick up the pieces is the local authority which is having cuts of £90m this year and £60m next.
“Everyone is being pushed and they know they have to take some of the burden. If you’re seeing taxes increase to pay for the NHS and schools, then people accept that.
“But if you see people at the bottom being penalised and thrown out of their homes ..? That will lead to an increase in divorces, hardships, depression and suicides.”
Derek Long, head of the north of the National Housing Federation, added: “This will have disastrous implications for a huge number of people already struggling.
“In the vast majority of cases, people will simply not be able to make up the shortfall themselves and could end up being sucked into poverty and spiralling levels of debt.”
The housing benefit changes are being introduced from April 2013 as part of the Government’s Welfare Reform Bill, currently going through the House of Lords.
The Government says it wants to ‘improve work incentives, simplify the benefits system and tackle administrative complexity’.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 12 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
morleyuk
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 11:28 AMWhy is LCC's Housing Boss blaming the banking sector for putting people into large homes? I can't see the correlation here, isn't this somebody who's trying to shift focus from their obvious failings? In theory, if he was doing his job right and everyone had the required space - nobody would actually lose anything.
karateronin
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:34 AMWhat a load of bull. I live in a council house that is far to big for my needs but they will not give me a smaller house.
yep
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 09:07 PMIs it me or has everyone forgotten who landed in this situation of financial turmoil in the first place? The bankers were given a free reign by the government to gamble unchecked by anyone! The banks were too big to fail so why is it ok for the country and Europe to fail and who is left to pick up the bill THE PUBLIC!!!!! I have yet to see anyone brought to book or anyone go to prison for one of the largest scams in recent history. whilst we suffer the bankers are back at it earning ludicrous bonuses. should we really be.surprised or shocked.
fred_titmus
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 09:00 PMIt reminds me a bit of the old 'window' tax lol.
white01
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 04:03 PMI thought it must have been a tax on having sex.
relick
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 03:51 PMI think this should be so there are many couples who's children have left home and are still living and claimming rent allowance for 3 4 5 bedroom houses, yet some families are struggling in smaller property's. If you own your own home and not claimming benefits then you are entitled to have as many bedrooms as you would like as this would be a choice not a neccesity !!!!!
ken2
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 02:53 PMYet again our millionaire Prime Minister and his millionaire cabinet members when needing to raise money ignore their wealthy big business friends and look instead to those on the very bottom of the pile to claw it from. This Government is morally bereft . If Governments in other Countries were doing the same there would be armed riots on the streets (and Cameron would be supporting them) Never forget this Government could not act in this pernicious immoral way if the Liberals were not propping them up and keeping them in power.
tiff
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 11:22 AMI can say that I hate everything to do with this so called government the mind boggles has to whats next on Camerons agenda. Who in their right mind gives people who dont put anything into the system a rise not only that a 5% + rise and then tries to tell the workers that we need to tighten our belts as we are in for a bad 2 years. This idiot does not have a clue ?
decolyn
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 10:31 AMooh what about the toilet is that classed as a room that can incur a tax. maybe the government will create a flush tax, or even put a meter on how many times the loo is sat on,, there's loadsa scope in parliament for that one since there are loads of &?$e$ there.. someone should tell cameron he is missing a golden opportunity!!!!
MarkReadman
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 10:18 AMPS dont forget the" prayer room" as well... thats one less.
MarkReadman
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 10:14 AMCouples will just buy a spare bed and claim to sleep separately, no law says you have to sleep together ? Will the council send someone round to get in to bed with people to check ? Another hair brained scheme to try to punish the poor for the waste of the council. Waste remains, people get the pains
decolyn
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 08:52 AMwont be long before this government start to tax the amount of air we breath in each gasp as we struggle to live with the cutbacks, unemployment, rising costs in fuel, food, and bills, i don't expect the queen or cameron will be penalized for having spare bedrooms,,, what a load of rubbish,, it wont be long before we are topping and tailing,, two in a bed in the hospitals, bet the government haven't thought of that one yet!!!
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