More than 75,000 Scots have been hit by the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ since it came into effect six months ago, including 13,000 in Tayside, Fife, the Forth Valley and the Mearns.
The controversial welfare reform sees housing benefit cut if the recipient is deemed to have an extra bedroom in their property.
Housing associations, opposition politicians and charities have all condemned under-occupancy penalty, which they say penalises some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Although removing what the UK Government terms the spare room subsidy is supposed to encourage people with additional rooms to move to a smaller property, critics say a shortage of suitable housing means many people are trapped in larger properties and have no choice but to run up huge debts as their housing benefit will no longer cover the full cost of their rent.
A Labour motion in the House of Commons to abolish the “bedroom tax” was defeated by 252 votes to 226 on Tuesday.
There was controversy, however, after some high-profile Labour MPs failed to vote on their own motion.
Welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: “We know that 75,662 people on housing benefit in Scotland are seeing a deduction as a result of this measure.
“These people, who were all of working age and receiving Housing Benefit to pay towards the cost of their rent, were all found to have room to spare in their homes.
“With 2.1 million households currently on the social housing waiting list due to a shortage of suitable properties, we believed this was unfair and the system had to be changed to help those families who were crammed into accommodation that was too small.”
He said although the changes have already led to a reduction in the housing benefit bill, it will be next year before it begins to free up enough homes to help those trapped in accommodation that is too small.
In Fife, 5,688 people have had their housing benefit cut, as have 3,071 in Dundee and 1,042 in Aberdeenshire. In Angus 782 people have had payments reduced, 915 in Clackmannanshire, 780 in Perth and Kinross and 893 in Stirling.
According to Citizen’s Advice Scotland, it is the disabled who are bearing the brunt of the “bedroom tax”, saying two-thirds of the 1,600 Scots to seek advice since its introduction are disabled.
CAS chief executive Margaret Lynch said: “The first thing that is clear is that the majority of Scots affected are sick and disabled people who were already living on low incomes. So, like so many of the recent welfare reforms, this is a measure that is principally hitting the most vulnerable people in our society, making their difficult situations even worse.”