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Contrary to popular belief, most Tories are fair minded decent people. If you ask most of them about the bedroom tax all they know is the official “It’s just bringing the public sector in line with the private sector”.When you actually explain it to them, most are horrified at the effects of it, because lets be honest here, only the left wing media has reported any of the cases. That has to stop. Everyone has to be made aware of the hardship and pain that this is causing.With more welfare cuts in the pipeline it’s time for a real debate about what is and isn’t fair, but that discussion is for another post.So let’s look at the under occupancy charge. Supporters of the changes have referred to the unreformed system as a “spare room subsidy” whereby tax-payers are said to be subsidising social housing tenants living in houses larger than their needs require, with the said intention of the policy being to reduce these costs and ease housing shortages and overcrowding. Supposedly the rationale of the policy is to encourage council tenants living in houses too big for their needs to move to smaller properties so that existing housing stock can be better used.Research by the BBC suggests that only 6% of those affected have moved. Mainly this is because there is no where to move to. There are very few 1 bed properties in the social sector partly because the difference between the cost of building a one and a two bedroom property are so small that it is better to provide the accommodation that is more flexible. Currently huge numbers of couples and single people find themselves in a two bed property that was what they were offered by the council. Many of these are in high rise flats where the councils have made the decision that the houses were not suitable for families, so have used them as housing for people who only need a one bedroom property.New Government figures show the number of empty three and four bedroom properties increased from 25,462 in 2012-13 to 26,958 in 2013-14 when the tax was introduced. As a result lost rental income went up from £107million to £127million, and some authorities are considering demolishing empty homes.A second rationale made by the Department for Work and Pensions is to reduce the overall housing benefit bill. If you are decreed to be under occupying your house by one bedroom then you lose 14% by two you lose 25%.On the face of it that sounds quite reasonable. Why indeed should spare rooms be paid for at the expense of the taxpayer? The problem comes with the definition of what constitutes a spare room, and the idea that it is just bringing it in line with the private sector.According to some research two thirds of those affected claim some form of disability benefit. Many sleep in a separate room from their partner because of it. Many use the spare room for their disability equipment. Many have had a small fortune spent on adapting their homes to suit, yet none of these things were originally taken into account.If an extra room is required for a carer to stay overnight that is accepted if the person requiring care is the claimant or their partner, but not if it is one of their children even when they become an adult. After cases that went to the supreme court there have been some successes where a disabled person was accepted as needing a separate room and the issue of a carer for a child were accepted as requirements, but like all court cases these are individual decisions and although they create a precedent, it doesn’t mean the local authoritywill accept it without a challenge. See With and without foundation - Bedroom tax in Supreme Court - Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and CommentOn the subject of children, the rules are now that two children under the age of ten must share a room irrespective of sex, and if same sex must share a room till 16. This is quite different from the housing allocation policies of many authorities. Many authorities will allocate a bedroom per child if there is more than a 4 year age gap, so the housing authority would not expect a 3 year old boy to share with his 12 year old brother, however according to the under occupancy rules that would mean that the household were over accommodated.Most authorities will also take a shared residence order into account when allocating a home, but there is no recognition of the huge numbers of parents sharing care of their children when it comes to the bedroom tax. Only the parent receiving the child benefit can claim that their children live with them. The damage this has done is incalculable. I know of numerous fathers that have been forced into accommodation where their children can no longer stay overnight, causing tears and trauma to the children involved.Until the subject of benefits where there is shared care is addressed this will remain a problem. You would imagine that if two children each spend half their time with each parent, then it would make sense for the child benefit to be split between parents, however the official line is that it is awarded based on who has primary care of the children, and where the children spend equal time with each parent, that is decided by the address for school, usually the Mother’s. Of course where there are two children, the parents could each claim for one, but unless they do it in agreement with each other, the decision always favours the mother.That covers some of the questions of whether a room is spare or not. Now lets look at the assertion that it is just bringing the public sector in line with the private sector.Firstly the private rented sector is quite different from the social housing sector. If you rent privately you know that you are in a short term let which, after the initial six months, you can be given a months notice to leave at any time. You have no security of tenure and normally you can’t redecorate or make any changes to the house. You know and accept that in the private sector any move is temporary. You simply don’t expect to be in the same place for long.In the social sector, after a probationary period, you do have security of tenure, you can redecorate and, with permission, make improvements to your home. The social sector has always been seen as a home for life, and people treat it that way often over the years spending many thousands of pounds on their home and garden. Frequently as families grow up and leave home they will get houses on the same estate so there is a support network for everyone living there. On most council estates there is a real sense of community.Now lets look at the way rents are dealt with. Since 2008 rents in the private sector are calculated in bands called Local Housing Allowance rates or LHA.Initially if a tenant could find a cheaper property than the applicable rate, they were allowed to keep the difference. That stopped in 2009. The changes were Labour’s attempt to control the spiralling housing benefit bill, but instead they dramatically increased rents payable for the larger homes. Overall they restricted housing benefit to the median rate for an area, i.e. the LHA was set at a rate that would cover the rent for 50% of the properties available in an area. Previously housing benefit covered any fair rent for the property claimed for, so it didn’t matter how much the rent was as long as it was deemed to be a fair rent.Now the coalition government lowered the LHA rates to only cover 30% of the properties in a broad market area. This means that the amount payable for a two bed property varies from £85 a week in West Pennine to £300 a week in Central London.In the area I live in the LHA rate for a one bedroom house is £91.38 a week or £395 a month. The council rent for a two bedroom house is around £74 a week or £320 a month. If you happen to be a single dad with shared care of your two children renting privately you need to find a two bed where the rent is less than the one bedroom rate of £395 which isn’t that hard to do. In fact on the estate I live on there are ex council houses available at that price. Admittedly they are unmodernised, still having gas wall heaters rather than central heating, but perfectly adequate. So a single father who is not in receipt of child benefit living in a two bed council house will have 14% of his rent ignored for housing benefit purposes, so will have to find £10.36 a week off his JSA of roughly £75, so the housing benefit payable is £275 a month. If he then moves to the privately rented house the HB payable is the full £395. So if he moves to affordable accommodation the bill to the taxpayer rises by £120 a month. Even if he moves from 2 bed council to 1 bed private the HB payable is going to rise. Where is the sense in that? It certainly doesn’t look as if people moving to a smaller house is going to save any money unless they can stay within the social sector, and those homes simply don’t exist.If the desire is truly to make the most of the available housing stock, then it doesn’t make sense to exempt pensioners as they are the people most likely to have spare rooms. In some areas councils have schemes where they pay a bounty to anyone moving to a smaller house, sometimes as much as £1800 a room plus help with removal and redecorating expenses. Wouldn’t that be far more likely to create a better use of housing stock than the punitive under occupancy charges?The realities of this legislation is it cannot achieve any of the supposed objectives!

My main job for the last 10 years has been in working with families that the government deems to be most challenging in society here in the UK. It was common among these families for parents to falsely get their children diagnosed as autistic. There are a few advantages to this from their perspective, one being that they could 'home school' their child, saying they needed the home environment, this meant they didn't have to get their children into school. The other big one was that it made their family exempt from the benefits cap. I know one family I worked with that got about £60k per year in disability benefits, housing benefit, unemployment benefits, council tax relief etc… they also got a big house because the children needed separate rooms due to their 'disabilities' so they avoided the bedroom issues (there are rules over how many bedrooms benefits will cover based on number and age of children and occupants etc).These parents didn't manage to get their children diagnosed through the NHS, they had to get it done privately. Often all involved professionals (schools, social services, health, police, etc) didn't feel the children were autistic and so an NHS referral would fail because the evidence is the 'autistic' behaviours are only allegedly present when at home with parents worn no witnesses. But they can still pay for the diagnosis privately.This is obviously a small number of people compared to numbers diagnosed and to all those who are undiagnosed, and it isn't the children themselves wanting a diagnosis for something they know they don't have so this is a bit different answer, this would be why someone gets someone a fake diagnosis, not necessarily the person getting a fake diagnosis themselves.I think on the NHS it is difficult to get a table diagnosis because it is hard enough to convince your GP to request an assessment, then you have to provide evidence that you have displayed symptoms from pretty much birth, they ideally want to talk with your parent or doctors for that evidence, not self reporting. You have to have exceptional circumstances to not have a parent or doctor etc giving the evidence. You get assessed in the assessment by a professional, as well as having to have done some written and multiple choice assessments that the professional reviews before your face to face assessment.I can see that a few people may try to claim they personally are autistic, but being autistic I can't see why someone would want to unless they were autistic. You generally don't get much extra support, definitely don't get lots of extra benefits and in the UK at least the expectation is you look at how you are fit for work and at what you can do and are expected to try to get a job doing this. This has led to many genuine disabled people losing benefits and having to try to do jobs they aren't really suitable for, and obviously some people do manage to play the system but most would get the diagnosis and still have to work, still not get benefits and so not be much better off by deciding to fake it...

Working class does not necessarily mean poor in the UK.“London-based Pimlico Plumbers, owned by entrepreneur Charlie Mullins - who is believed to be worth £75 million.Mr Mullins, 65, claims around a dozen of his 225 tradesmen earn more than £200,000 a year and around half earn £100,000 or more.”Photo and caption from the “Sun” NewspaperMr Mullins would describe himself as “Working Class”, and rightly proud of the fact. As no doubt would the self-employed Plumbers earning six figure salaries mentioned above.No if you replace the words “Working Class” with “Poor”, the question makes more sense.The answer is a State Benefit called Housing Benefit - this from a website called turntous Resources and Information.“What is Housing Benefit?Housing Benefit is money to help you with your housing costs if you are on a low income. It can help with rent and some service charges.You could qualify for this help whether you are in or out of work.The amount of Housing Benefit you get may be restricted by the Local Housing Allowance Rate in your area if you are a private tenant, and could be restricted by the number of bedrooms you have 'Bedroom Tax' if you are a social tenant.A Benefit Cap may be applied to your Housing Benefit if the total amount of certain benefits that you get is more than a specified amount, your Housing Benefit could be reduced in this case.You cannot get Housing Benefit to help with the costs of a mortgage or home loan. If you own the home you live in, you may be able to get a loan for mortgage interest if you are getting Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Pension Credit, or Universal Credit (if have no earnings). A leaseholder could also get help with eligible services and ground rent if entitled to these benefits.Applies to: England, Scotland and WalesIf you live in Northern Ireland, see our Housing Benefit (Northern Ireland) guide.Age rules: There are no specific age rules that affect Housing Benefit entitlement but you must be old enough to enter into a tenancy agreement.Type of benefit: Means-testedTaxable: NoAdministered by: Your local council”So in the UK if your income is inadequate to pay rents for a normal property where you live, it may be possible to claim for Government Help towards the Rent.