CHC respond to High Court Ruling

CHC respond to the High Court ruling that the ‘Bedroom Tax’ does not discriminate against disabled tenants.

Amanda Oliver, Head of Policy at Community Housing Cymru said:

“We are extremely disappointed with today’s ruling by the High Court, that the ‘bedroom tax’ policy does not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people. The ruling will have devastating consequences for disabled people affected by the ‘bedroom tax’ and puts them at real risk of being made homeless.

We have always argued that the changes to welfare reform will disproportionately affect those that can least afford it. Many disabled people have had their homes adapted at great cost to suit their needs and for many, the ‘bedroom tax’ will mean uprooting from family and support networks or cutting back on food and heating to pay the difference.

The UK Government have allocated an additional £35m to the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) fund which they say will protect disabled people, but this is only a short term solution and clearly won’t stretch far enough. The DWP’s own estimate suggests that two thirds of the 660,000 social housing tenants affected by the ‘bedroom tax’ are disabled and we don’t think their ‘fairness’ argument stacks up.”