A Perth housing association chief last night slammed the controversial bedroom tax.
Grant Ager, chief executive of Fairfield Housing Co-Operative Ltd, told The Courier that there is growing anger against new housing benefit laws, which came into force on April 1, and mean that social tenants deemed to have spare bedrooms will be given less money to cover their rent.
He raised the case of a woman in England who allegedly took her own life, with a note left to her family stating “the only people to blame are the Government”. She faced housing benefit problems when her two offspring left home.
“If a Government policy can cause a woman’s death, then that shows how bad it is,” said Mr Ager.
“People down south are now making legal challenges against the bedroom tax and that shows the pressure they are being put under by the UK Government.
“You are starting to see chinks of U-turns in the bedroom tax, such as the Government looking at disabled people slightly different now. I think what’s crucial is the fact that people have really examined their own situation.
“We have around 50 people affected by it in Perth and Kinross. Some people are finding the extra money to pay from their existing benefits and this is making them poor. Other people have applied for discretionary housing payment, but there is big pressure on that fund.
“Some people are burying their heads in the sand, while some are actively looking for property, but there is nothing there. For example, we’ve had only one one-bedroom property go vacant in the last 12 months.”
Mr Ager went on: “We don’t have the resources to basically make it work and the policy is not going to work.
“We’ve contacted every single person about the ‘bedroom tax’ and offered them advice. Unfortunately, as a business, we’re treating people who don’t pay their rent due to bedroom tax as rent arrears, to enable us to recover the money. Much as that is very unpalatable, we have to do it unless there is some kind of U-turn on it.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said: “It’s only right that we bring fairness back to the system.”
She added that the DWP is giving councils an extra £150 million in discretionary housing payment funding this year.