‘Bedroom tax’ to hit one in five tenants

ALMOST one in five council or housing association tenants in Scotland will lose out under the UK Government’s “bedroom tax”, Scottish ministers claimed today.

From April, people with a spare room will have their housing benefit cut in a move intended to tackle “under-occupancy” in social housing.

Scottish Government housing and welfare minister Margaret Burgess said in answer to a parliamentary answer, that 105,000 households are likely to be affected – 18 per cent of the entire social rented sector.

Of these, 83,000 will be “under-occupying” by one bedroom and the remaining 22,000 by two or more rooms.

Ms Burgess said families would lose up to £52 a month – or over £600 a year – and the total amount of housing benefit lost to Scots would be between £60 million and £65m a year.

SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, pictured, a member of Holyrood’s welfare reform committee, said: “I’m absolutely shocked at these figures. In most cases, people can’t just up sticks and move to a smaller property.

“Even in the unlikely scenario that there is a vacant property – people have places of work, they send their kids to the local school, they may live close to relatives – but the Tories expect them to just abandon all of this.”