The UK Court of Appeal has declared aspects of the ‘bedroom tax’ unlawful due to its disproportionate impact on vulnerable individuals.
A number of legal challenges have arisen in response to the bedroom tax – or ‘spare room subsidy’ brought in by the Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2012 – which reduces the benefit entitlement of tenants in social housing if they are deemed to have more bedrooms than they require. The policy provides that tenants in social housing will have their social welfare reduced by 14% if they have a spare bedroom or 25% if they have two or more. It has been estimated that tenants affected by the bedroom tax on average lost between £14 and £25 a week.
The most recent cases are those of a victim of extreme domestic violence and grandparents of a severely disabled teenager that argued they should fall into a defined class of people who are exempt from the regulations. The first case involved A, a single mother living in a three-bedroom council house fitted with a secure panic room to protect her from a violent ex-partner. The second was brought by Paul and Sue Rutherford, grandparents of Warren, a seriously disabled child who needed overnight care in a specially adapted room. Under the rules, the carer of a disabled adult is exempt but not a disabled child. In both cases, the claimants faced a cut in housing benefit as they were deemed to be ‘under-occupying’ the additional rooms which were classified as spare. The applicants claimed their omission from exemption was unlawful discrimination under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Court ruled that in the case of A, the Government should have more carefully considered the effect of the new housing rules on women and particularly those at risk of domestic violence. It also found it “very difficult” to justify the differing treatment of carers for disabled children and disabled adults, particularly in reference to the best interests of the child. The Court found the regulations unlawfully discriminatory in their application to these two specific circumstances, but did not strike down the operation of the scheme as a whole.
The Court of Appeal has given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which will be heard over a 3-day hearing beginning on 29 February.
Click here to read previous Bulletin articles on the bedroom tax.
Click here for the judgement.
Click here for further analysis on the UK Human Rights Blog.