More than 50,000 people affected by the so-called bedroom tax have fallen behind on rent and face eviction, figures given to The Independent show.

Exclusive: 50,000 people are now facing eviction after bedroom tax

One council tenant in three has been pushed into rent arrears since April, while tens of thousands in housing association properties are also affected

Emily Dugan

Thursday 19 September 2013

 

The statistics reveal the scale of debt created by the Government’s under-occupancy charge, as one council house tenant in three has been pushed into rent arrears since it was introduced in April.

Figures provided by 114 local authorities across Britain after Freedom of Information (FoI) requests by the campaign group False Economy show the impact of the bedroom tax over its first four months. The total number of affected council tenants across Britain is likely to be much higher than the 50,000 recorded in the sample of local authorities that responded to the FoI.

At least another 30,000 people living in housing association properties have also fallen behind on rent payments since the bedroom tax came in, with potentially tens of thousands more also affected, according to separate research by the National Housing Federation.

Barrow in Cumbria was the worst-affected area, where more than three-quarters of all council-house tenants have fallen into arrears since the bedroom tax started. In Clackmannanshire, Tamworth and South Kesteven more than half of all affected households have fallen behind on their rent since the charge was introduced.

The shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liam Byrne, said: “These appalling figures prove that while this government stands up for a privileged few, a debt bombshell is exploding for a generation of people.

“While the nation’s millionaires get a huge tax cut, thousands more now confront arrears and eviction from which they’ll never recover. This is final proof that the hated tax must be dropped now.”

Responding to the figures highlighted by The Independent, Mr Byrne told the BBC that “thousands and thousands of our neighbours are being pushed into foodbanks and into the hands of loan sharks because of this vicious policy”.

“The vast majority of people living in these homes are people with a disability. Hitting largely disabled people with this horrific tax and plunging them into debt – surely the message and the conclusion is very clear – we need to drop this tax, and drop it now,” he said.

He asked where people should move to, highlighting research published by the Labour party earlier in the year that suggested there were not suitable alternative homes for 90 per cent of those affected by the bedroom tax.

The bedroom tax penalises tenants if they have a “spare” bedroom by reducing their housing benefit by up to 25 per cent. As emergency funds from councils dry up, experts warn the situation is expected to deteriorate further over the coming months. The latest revelations are a further blow for the policy after a judge ruled last week that those with a smaller extra room would be exempt from the charge.

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Benefits and child credits squeeze pushes 200,000 children into poverty

Patrick Wintour
The Guardian

© Photograph: Olivia Harris/REUTERS
The government says it is ‘investing in tackling the root causes of child poverty through making work pay’.

Government admits statistic that Labour says shows children are victims of Tory ‘games’ and ‘economic failure’.

The squeeze on tax credits and benefits will push a further 200,000 children into poverty, the government has admitted for the first time. It suggests a total of a million extra children will be in poverty as a result of government welfare measures.

Ministers have said they no longer regard the relative child poverty statistics as a useful or valid measure.

The extra 200,000 children in poverty figure stems from the government’s decision to lift most in-work and out-of-work benefits by only 1% over the next three years instead of increasing them in line with inflation.

Ministers had been reluctant to state what the impact would be on child poverty, an official government measure that looks at the number of households with incomes at 60% or below the national average household income.

But in an answer to a parliamentary question, work and pensions minister Esther McVey estimated that “the uprating measures in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 will result in around an extra 200,000 children being deemed by this measure to be in relative income poverty compared to uprating benefits by CPI [consumer price index]”.

Ministers are trying to push through the benefit squeeze with just one day of debate for the committee stage and third reading of the welfare benefits uprating bill in the House of Commons next Monday.

Labour said the figures showed children were victims of Tory “political games”. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: “The true character of this Conservative-led government has now been exposed. While they give the richest 2% of earners a £3bn tax cut, 200,000 children will be pushed into poverty and millions of working families made worse off.

 

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