Scottish Government pledges £2.5 million support for households hit by bedroom tax

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government

The Scottish government today announced £2.5 million in extra funding for social landlords to help their tenants cope with the bedroom tax and other changes to housing benefit imposed by Westminster.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the money will provide extra advice and support for thousands of people set to lose out due to the controversial under occupancy measures.

Ms Sturgeon (pictured) said: “I have made the Scottish Government’s firm opposition to the bedroom tax absolutely clear. It is a policy that will penalise some of the most vulnerable people in our society and I put the case for it to be scrapped in the strongest terms to the Deputy Prime Minister when we met in London this week.

“Sadly there appears to be indifference to this argument at Westminster, despite strong opposition from across Scotland.

“We are determined to do everything that we reasonably can to help and as part of these efforts we are making available an extra £2.5 million to social landlords to help them ensure that people affected by housing benefit changes have the advice and support they need.
"This is on top of the £5.4 million we have already allocated to help those affected by benefit reforms, which will go to organisations such as Citizens Advice.

“This extra support will assist social landlords in their efforts to engage directly with affected tenants and seek to identify ways in which they can deal with the impact of the changes.

“We are continuing to consider all reasonable steps that we can take to mitigate welfare cuts, including the bedroom tax. However, these unjust policies show why we need the powers of independence to protect vulnerable people rather than simply trying to cushion the blows in Scotland.

“It would be far better to control benefits and welfare so unfair policies like the bedroom tax are not even considered, let alone implemented."

The £2.5 million will be distributed to social landlords from the financial year beginning April 2013. Details on the funding criteria and application process will be available shortly.