Fife Council’s deputy leader has told a key Westminster body the “bedroom tax” should be scrapped.
Speaking at a special evidence session held by the Scottish Affairs Committee, Councillor David Ross said the spare room subsidy was affecting people on the lowest incomes.
“The ‘bedroom tax’ is unworkable, it’s pernicious and it should be scrapped,” he said.
Mr Ross and colleagues from the council, housing associations and the Citizens Advice Bureau were all quizzed about the impact the ‘tax’ is having on people in Fife, at the special meeting in Glenrothes.
The committee is looking at the effect the policy has on people with a bedroom classified as being spare.
Mr Ross branded the scheme contradictory, claiming it may in theory save money, but it had knock-on effect on other services that help people struggling to cope.
“The council has taken the decision to top-up the discretionary housing fund,” he said.
“Even if we were using that entirely to meet bedroom tax demands we would only be able to meet about a third of them.”
Eileen Rowand, the council’s head of revenue and exchequer services, told the committee the local authority had received 3,129 applications for discretionary housing payments (DHP), 2,603 of which had been paid.
However, she said: “DHP is being used as it’s never really been intended to be used. It’s for a short-term breathing space for individuals to change their circumstances.”
Norah Smith of Kingdom Housing Association agreed DHP was being used to mitigate the effects of the “bedroom tax.”
She said: “The arrears are less than we thought they would be. I think the DHP is masking that.”
Fife Housing Association called on the committee of MPs to lobby the UK Government to undertake a further investigation into alternatives to encourage people to downsize, make further concessions on exemptions to be granted for tenants who have applied to downsize but have to wait, and to provide additional budget to the Scottish Government for the funding of smaller homes.
MP Ian Davidson, chairman of the committee, said: “We want to know what can be done in Scotland to assess people’s circumstances and mitigate the effects on a more individual basis especially when you consider that the vast majority of the households that will be affected include a disabled person.”