bedroom tax News

Shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran has said that the Liberal Democrats are helping to carry unpopular Tory policies, after party members criticised government ministers for failing to stop the so-called bedroom tax.

Ms Curran said in a statement: "Not a single delegate spoke in favour of the bedroom tax at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.

"But the Scottish Lib Dems around the cabinet table - Michael Moore and Danny Alexander - want to support the Tories and carry on with a policy that will punish some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

"100,000 tenants in Scotland will be hit by the bedroom tax, 40,000 face rent arrears and thousands could be made homeless. The bedroom tax is cruel and unfair and today's vote shows even the Lib Dems know that".

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Liberal Democrats have criticised government ministers for failing to stop the so-called 'bedroom tax'.

Party members, gathered at the spring conference in Dundee, called on the coalition Government to defer the under-occupancy rules and reconsider its approach.

Former Lib Dem MSP Robert Brown led the criticism:

I hope that conference will send the clearest of messages to the Government, to Liberal Democrat ministers, that the policy is damaging and unfair.

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Protests are taking place nationwide today against a new housing benefit, labelled by campaigners as "bedroom tax", that will cut benefits to people with a spare room.

Under the Government's welfare reforms, those deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home will have their benefit claims reduced by £40 to £80.

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Around 100 people gathered in Nottingham today to protest against the government's 'bedroom tax' which it is claimed will affect thousands of households.

Dubbed by Labour as the 'bedroom tax', it will cut the amount of benefit people can get if they are considered to have a spare bedroom.

According to the Housing Federation, around 50,000 households could be affected in the East Midlands.

Today protests are being held in cities throughout the Midlands.

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A protest is taking place in the centre of Cardiff against what has been dubbed the 'bedroom tax'. It is part of a nationwide campaign against the UK Government's benefit plans.

The tax will be split into two rates: If you have one extra room the charge is 14 per cent of your eligible rent, if you have two or more extra rooms it is 25 per cent of your eligible rent

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Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson told ITV's Daybreak that "disabled people are being targeted" by the Government's so-called 'bedroom tax'.

She said: "Some of these changes are very, very painful, because they [disabled people] are not just going to be hit by this."

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MS sufferer Alyson Fletcher has lived in her home in Dunstable for 47 years but she said she will need to find an extra £100 a month when the Government's so-called 'bedroom tax' is introduced.

Read: David Cameron vows to review 'any individual case'

Speaking to ITV's Daybreak she said if she had to move again and make modifications to her next home she would be looking at a cost of "around £17,000".

Read: Tenants urge minister to think again about 'bedroom tax'

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Jonathan Isaby from the TaxPayers' Alliance said taxpayers would "resent" paying for spare rooms for those receiving housing benefits "when they can't have one themselves."

Read: What is the government's controversial 'bedroom tax'?

He said: "I'm not saying that there aren't people who do need those rooms but you can't have a blanket exemption for hundreds and thousands of people."

Campaigners against the Government's so-called 'bedroom tax' will take to the streets tomorrow in protest of the proposals.

Read: Iain Duncan Smith: There is no 'bedroom tax'

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• 'Bedroom tax' is a housing benefit reform, an 'under-occupation charge'
• It will be introduced on 1st April everywhere except Northern Ireland

• There are two rates: If you have one extra room the charge is 14 per cent of your eligible rent, if you have two or more extra rooms it is 25 per cent of your eligible rent

What does this mean?

• The effect will be that 40,000 lose all their housing benefit and 620,000 lose an average of £15 a week
• Almost two thirds of those affected will be disabled or have a disabled partner

Watch: Mother says she will struggle because of 'bedroom tax'

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• Pensioners have always been exempt
• Approved foster carers, so long as they have fostered a child, or become an approved foster carer in the last 12 months
• Adult children who are in the Armed Forces but who continue to live with parents

• Severely disabled children should be allowed a room of their own if their condition makes it unreasonable for another child to share with them

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