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Bedroom Tax - actually a bit of a failure

Today, the Government released an interim report on the bedroom tax - the much debated measure which some said would free up housing, helping with overcrowding and saving a bit of dosh too.

The report - which can be read here - is hardly positive. This might explain why it was released on reshuffle day.

The main headlines:

It is making people poorer and placing people into debt - people are skipping meals and cutting back on the use of gas/electricity. Many people are now in arrears with some using pay day loans to make payments. Tory donor, and Wonga chief, Adrian Beecroft must be happy.

It is also worth noting that 59% of those affected are usually in paid employment.

The disabled are most likely to be hit - 7 out of 10 affected households have a disabled person living there.

Discretionary housing payments are not doing their job - In threads on this site, supporters brought out the DHP card when the impact on the disabled was mentioned. However it seems that many councils means test the payments - and disabled person's DLA benefits result in them failing the means test. Oh dear.

One advice agency said: "I knew DHP would be difficult to obtain, but I was surprised by just how hard it is to get."

DHP's are also temporary - often given for 12 months before review. This causes uncertainty for people who feel they will need long term support (90%).

We don't know if the bedroom tax has saved any money - You'd have thought that they would be looking into this aspect. However, what we do know is that only 41% of people have paid what they owe under the new rules.

And the big one... only 4.5% of people have moved. Most Local Authorities felt that the bedroom tax would have no effect on overcrowding and many did not feel overcrowding was an issue. One local authority said:

"Overcrowding is not a significant problem across the stock and certainly not one that we would think it worth impoverishing others [or making them homeless] to solve."

I agree - a stupid and unfair policy.

Reply 1

Moosferatu

Well it meets and exceeds IDS minimum quota of suffering that he must inflict on the populace on behalf of all his greedy, amoral supporters so in that case it's a qualified success. It was never about money, it's about sending a message to the disabled and ill-equipped of this country that their existence in their current form is simply not on and must change immediately. None of that New Labour cultural Marxist **** of giving them a reasonable standard of living.

Reply 2

Jacob-C

It was a failure from the moment that it was thought up. You would think that the Tories would have learnt from the poll tax but clearly they are just as nasty as there were then.