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Number of Northern Ireland households paying bedroom tax triples in six months
The number of households in Northern Ireland paying the bedroom tax has more than tripled in six months, despite the last Stormont government pledging to mitigate the policy.
The Department for Communities provides housing benefit top-ups to cover tenants affected by the Westminster-imposed welfare cut, which reduces the amount paid to claimants deemed to have more bedrooms than they need.
But official figures released last week show the top-up payments ended for 86 households between October and March, meaning 121 housing benefit claimants are now subject to the bedroom tax.
In the six month period before October, 35 claimants stopped receiving the mitigating payments.
The power sharing agreement between republicans and unionists in Northern Ireland collapsed in January last year, meaning the country has been without a functioning government for almost 18 months.
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Tenants subject to the bedroom tax who voluntarily move into another home they are under-occupying by the same number of bedrooms or more lose their entitlement to the top-ups.
Inside Housing revealed in March last year that 1,500 households receiving the payments were on voluntary transfer lists – with many thought to be unaware that they risk being hit by the bedroom tax.
Nicola McCrudden, Northern Ireland director of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “This is a direct result of regulations being rushed through around the Assembly’s collapse – under normal circumstances any exemptions from supplementary payments would have received more scrutiny.
“Tenants have been led to believe that the bedroom tax wasn’t going to happen and have applied to move home with the understanding that they will be protected.
“Instead, if they move for personal reasons, such as employment, the bedroom tax will apply. This goes against the overall aim of welfare reform of making it simpler for people to gain employment.”
The mitigation measures were agreed by the Northern Ireland Assembly shortly before the power-sharing government between Sinn Féin and the DUP collapsed in January 2017.
The funding for the top-ups is due to end in March 2020 – after which point nearly 34,000 households could be hit by the bedroom tax.
Never Again campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
LANDLORDS
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
GOVERNMENT
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
