'Bedroom Tax' will hit home

Huge changes to housing benefit are on the way which will bring a tsunami of misery in their wake. Anyone of working age with a spare room in their house will lose 15 per cent of their benefit, 25 per cent if they have two spare rooms.

If two children are both boys, or both girls, the government decrees they should share a room and their own room is regarded as spare, leading to the same benefit cut.

Chippenham councillor Bill Douglas said, "The government, from April will impose a 'Bedroom Tax'. All social housing tenants will have their housing benefit cut if they have a spare bedroom. Those genuinely poor families already hit by unemployment caused by the downturn, and faced with fast rising food prices, are already struggling to pay bills and rent while feeding themselves and their children. Now, if they have a spare room they will lose an average of £14 a week, possibly up to £80 a month or have to find smaller accommodation somewhere.

In Chippenham there are hundreds on the housing lists. When I checked, the figures showed the biggest demand is for one bedroom housing. The Housing Department have no houses for those forced to downsize to go into. There are very few one-bedroom properties at all in our area or planned for building for those two bedroom tenants with one spare to move into. Research for housing associations shows 42 per cent of those affected already struggle financially. Families who cannot downsize will be trapped and forced to pay the tax or become homeless if they collapse into debt. This is a scandalous Bill which will I am sure result in devastation to genuinely poor families."