Dundee tenants affected by the so-called “bedroom tax” could be missing out on a share of almost a million pounds of benefit payments.
The “Dundee Bin the Bedroom Tax Campaign” is calling on the city council and Dundee’s housing associations to take urgent steps to ensure all tenants affected by the cuts to their housing benefit receive the money they are entitled to.
The group say they have been approached by scores of tenants and the evidence from them shows that many of those affected are not claiming discretionary housing payments (DHP) that they may well now qualify for.
The campaign has produced an information leaflet to ensure that tenants know they should apply.
The Scottish Government announced in October that an extra £20 million would be made available to social landlords to mitigate the effect of the cuts in Scotland.
The campaign group say: “The DHP fund is around £830,000 for Dundee in 2013/14. We are asking the council how much of that total is still left unclaimed?
“The problem is that many tenants are not aware of this. Nor does a new form for claiming DHP, which runs to 40 pages and is very difficult to fill in, help the situation.”
The campaigners are also calling on the Scottish Government to commit to a policy of no evictions for those in arrears from the changes to the housing benefit legislation.