Challenges to the bedroom tax

Over the last few of weeks, a number of challenges to the ‘bedroom tax’ have been heard in Great Britain. The bedroom tax is a new measure introduced under the Government’s programme of welfare reform whereby the amount of Housing Benefit which a social tenant receives will be reduced if they are regarded as under-occupying their home. The bedroom tax has not yet been introduced in Northern Ireland.

Many of the challenges so far have revolved around examining what size a room has to be in order for it to be properly classed as a bedroom and looking at the needs of people with disabilities who may need an extra bedroom, for example to store essential equipment.

Nearly Legal has added a very useful feature to their blog where they have listed all of the relevant cases in chronological order. This will be added to as more cases are reported. This will be of particular use to advisers who want to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in welfare reform. The list of cases can be found on the Nearly Legal website.