Avoid paying bedroom tax?

[jimbo1lee]

I think I read on here, someone had posted a legal way to avoid the "bedroom tax"

whoever it was could you please re-post the info as it may help a dear friend of ours.

Thank you.

Jimbo.

[joe_bloggs*]

A bit of good news concerning the bedroom tax,

Thousands of people have been wrongly identified as liable for the bedroom tax, including some who now face eviction or have been forced to move to a smaller property, as a result of an error by Department of Work and Pensions.

Housing experts believe as many as 40,000 people could be affected by the mistake. The DWP says it believes only a "small number" of tenants are affected, which it estimates number 5,000.

All could be eligible for refunds worth on average at least £640 per claimant and millions in aggregate.

The error affects working age tenants in social housing who have occupied the same home continuously since 1996. An oversight by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) when drafting the legislation means that the housing benefit regulations dating from 1996 were not updated when the coalition legislated for the bedroom tax.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/09/bedroom-tax-loophole-exempt-liable-housing-benefit

Unfortunately the eventual demise of this hated tax will have come too late for the people who have already taken their life due to the effects of this policy

[guardpig]

Well actually I think the whole idea of funding the size of property you need as opposed to want is basically sound.  Why should I subsidise something which i could not afford for myself.  That said it is never going to work.  The view from the Ivory Tower does not allow for the disabled, the lack of housing, the pre-existance of pets.  All of which are blindingly obvious from the base of said tower. Pity really because there is no way my son will qualify for a 1 bed flat and no way he could cope in an HMO - so I'm stuffed.

When OH and I married he had already bought his ex-council flat.  We had a baby. We needed more space. We moved out, got a mortgage and now live in a 3 bed semi. Sometime in the next 18months we will be drastically downsizing/downgrading because on the pensions we will get there is no way we could pay the bills, especially the heating and council tax.

Along the corridor a young family were on child no2.  They went onto child no3 at which point the council gave them a 3 bed house.   Now he did work but they certainly qualified for every benefit going. They will still be in that 3 bed house, even though their children like ours are grown up.  Now why not move them back to a 1 bed flat or pay them less benefit. It is after all what we and many other homeowners will need to be doing.

However, just like us, there is no way any of us can be mobile without available properties to buy or rent!.

An ideal world we do not live in.  However my daughter is currently in a 2 bed council flat.  12 floors of 4 2bed and 4 1bed flats(but no 3 beds).  As she put it - when her daughter moves out she'll just move to one of the 1 beds.  Maybe if they had built mixed size communities back in the 50s/60s/70s this mobility of social housing tenants would not be a problem.

[pontypool1980]

You're the first person I have seen anywhere who has hit upon this so far. There simply aren't enough 1 bedroom properties around. Because of the bedroom tax a lot of people will be looking to downsize their property to one with fewer bedrooms. There was never many 1 bedroom properties to begin with and now what few there are will be in high demand from possibly hundreds of thousands? looking to downsize and take a 1 bedroom property. If the government wanted to be fair and just about it, they could have just as easily said, if you are have a spare bedroom you have to downsize, if a smaller property is offered and you refuse, then you pay the bedroom tax. The fact that they did this, knowing ful well that there won't be enough smaller properties tells me this was just an unscrupulous plot to levy taxes and rake in millions (just calculate how many thousands are paying X amount more due to this tax, you will find it to be in the 10's or 100's of millions per month. Also by freeing up more properties due to this tax, it means more homes will become available for the government to sell, to people looking to buy/the private sector. It's nothing but a scheme for money and has nothing to do with creating homes.

[joe_bloggs*]

The main purpose of the bedroom tax was never about freeing up underoccupied properties,it was all about making benefit claimants poorer so that those on appalinglingly low wages seem better off,A lot of councils and housing associations cannot now let larger properties as tenants are afraid that if they move in and become unemployed they won't be able to afford the bedroom tax,Far from cutting the housing benefit bill, it is now even higher than ever,due to partly the fact that tenants on benefit who are forced out of their homes due to the bedroom tax move into private rented accomadation which in most cases is even more expensive.

Having a spare room used to be a normal part of life now under the tories it's a crime

[0125arwen]

I bet labour are glad that cameron is taking the flak for a policy they started.

[joe_bloggs*]

Bedroom tax was introduced in 2013

[0125arwen]

So what have private tenants been paying for years?.

[joe_bloggs*]

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the hated bedroom tax

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/05/bedroom-tax-bill-splits-coalition-second-reading

[upthecreekyetagain]

Those opposed to the policy of not subsidising additional bedrooms have undoubtedly scored a massive propaganda victory - you only have to look at some of the replies on this thread where posters talk about 'paying' for an unused bedroom etc.  'Bedroom Tax' has been accepted as the standard way of referring to the changes in Housing Benefit Entitlement and is used as a stik to beat the government - in exactly the same way as the Community Charge became colloquially referred to as the Poll Tax.

One claimed a question in a poll was biased because it asked about 'subsidised rooms' rather than asking if people should be penalised for having an additional unused bedroom! - even though the former is a far more accurate way of referring to the change.  Provide a subsidy for unused rooms by all means but if you do then don't limit that subsidy to just one section of the population.  I have two spare rooms, maybe I should get double the subsidy.

The so called 'bedroom tax' is NOT a tax.

The real problem is that it has not been tackled earlier.  Undoubtedly the introduction of this policy has caused hardship in many cases and the government could have tackled it far more effectively in my opinion.  As someone earlier in the thread suggested, if the reduction in housing benefit only came into effect when a smaller property was offered and refused then I doubt many could argue against the policy.

[joe_bloggs*]

But Creeky there never was a spare room subsidy,please point out where in housing or social security law the spare room subsidy was introduced,so there is no subsidy to withdraw,Also this only applies to bedrooms but doesn't apply to spare rooms,this policy hits the poorest and most vunerable people in society and I can quite understand why Tories defend this policy but for anyone else to defend it beggars belief

[al**bear]

Up here in Scotland the Bedroom Tax is a major part of the SNP/YES  INDY campaigns attack on Westminster

So all those SNP MPs must have rushed down to protect the less well off, who are hammered by this TAX

(as it's an additional surcharge, i'll keep calling it a TAX)

Well NO, two-thirds of the SNP MPs didn't even bother turning up for the Vote

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@joe_bloggs* wrote:
But Creeky there never was a spare room subsidy,please point out where in housing or social security law the spare room subsidy was introduced,so there is no subsidy to withdraw,Also this only applies to bedrooms but doesn't apply to spare rooms,this policy hits the poorest and most vunerable people in society and I can quite understand why Tories defend this policy but for anyone else to defend it beggars belief

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So are you saying that the cost, to rent or buy, of a three bedroom property is the same as for a two bedroom one?

Of course it isn't - so if someone is in receipt of housing benefit for a property with more rooms, (and yes I take the point that only bedrooms are considered in this poicy), than are needed then the unused rooms are being paid for by the tax-payer - i.e. a subsidy.

We have the current situation where so many are in need of decent accommodation and yet at the same time there are millions of unused bedrooms.  Our housing stock is in such a mess yet the only solution proffered by many is to build more houses.  It will take decades to sort out and I accept it is unreasonable to make those caught in the trap to suffer hardship when there isn't anywhere for them to go that better suits their needs - BUT where there is then it is an emminently reasonable proposal to move them and remove the payments being made for the excess size of their current housing if they refuse.

Abolition of this policy is not what is needed but amending it to reduce the hardship that can be caused by trying to implement it in the current crude way.

We lost the benefits of the Community Charge, (poll tax), because politicians didn't amend it to ease some of the problems it caused and with it the fair system where people paid for the local services they used and replaced it with a tax on property.  Houses don't use services people do.

[rose2008-2008]

Ive got one and they had better get rid of it. I live alone but am comfy and settled in my flat and dont want the stress of moving so i pay it but its RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Any excuse to squeeze more money out of you they will do it. What will it be next. Outdoor Loo Tax???,,,more than one pet tax??. Balcony Tax??,,,Bigger garden Tax??.

[lambsy_uk]

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@jimbo1lee wrote:

I think I read on here, someone had posted a legal way to avoid the "bedroom tax"

Jimbo.

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Get a mortgage!

[joe_bloggs*]

I wouldn't mention a Loo tax Rose,as some social housing has 2 loos ! Best not give the Tories any more daft ideas

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@rose2008-2008 wrote:

Ive got one and they had better get rid of it. I live alone but am comfy and settled in my flat and dont want the stress of moving so i pay it but its RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Any excuse to squeeze more money out of you they will do it. What will it be next. Outdoor Loo Tax???,,,more than one pet tax??. Balcony Tax??,,,Bigger garden Tax??.

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It's not a tax you are paying but rent on a room - and why shouldn't you?

[joe_bloggs*]

2 sisters live next door to each other,both are unemployed,one lives in a private house (ex local authority) the house has 2 bedrooms,the rent is £120pw which is fully covered by housing benefit,she pays no bedroom tax,her sisters rent in the local authority house next door is £89pw which is covered by housing benefit,yet she has to pay £15pw bedroom tax,they both get the same amount of unemployment benefit,this obviously is not fair as when they received their benefit they would also have received a letter stating the amount they were getting is by law the minimum that they need to live on,so surely by one sister having the bedroom tax to pay puts her under the government stated minimum living allowance?

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@joe_bloggs* wrote:
2 sisters live next door to each other,both are unemployed,one lives in a private house (ex local authority) the house has 2 bedrooms,the rent is £120pw which is fully covered by housing benefit,she pays no bedroom tax,her sisters rent in the local authority house next door is £89pw which is covered by housing benefit,yet she has to pay £15pw bedroom tax,they both get the same amount of unemployment benefit,this obviously is not fair as when they received their benefit they would also have received a letter stating the amount they were getting is by law the minimum that they need to live on,so surely by one sister having the bedroom tax to pay puts her under the government stated minimum living allowance?

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Simple answer, make both sisters pay for the additional room if they are offered smaller properties and refuse to move.

[al**bear]

So Creeky, force someone out a home they may have lived in for 30 years ?

When this 'Charge' was first brought in, to the Private rental market, years ago. It was NOT retrospective, it only counted for people taking up a new tenancy, this is what should have happened, when the Tories brought in in for local authority tenants

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@al**bear wrote:

So Creeky, force someone out a home they may have lived in for 30 years ?

When this 'Charge' was first brought in, to the Private rental market, years ago. It was NOT retrospective, it only counted for people taking up a new tenancy, this is what should have happened, when the Tories brought in in for local authority tenants

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The charge doesn't apply to someone who has received housing benefit continuously prior to 1996.