The woman lives in a two bedroom flat in Glasgow with her husband, but had her housing benefit cut by 14% under the new occupancy rules. Due to her disability, she is unable to share the same bedroom as her husband. The Tribunal has ruled that the decision to cut her housing benefit breached her human rights and that the couple require a bedroom each, so their flat should now be considered fully occupied under the new bedroom tax rules.
Stewart Dickson MLA said: “I welcome the outcome of this case as an early judicial ruling on the legality of the bedroom tax. It holds out hope for future cases to be taken on other parts of the Coalition’s welfare reforms.
“These welfare changes are clearly an evolving matter, however this case highlights the problems of trying to implement a one size fits all set of rules to benefits.
“It is important to note that this case was taken under human rights laws, which illustrates that these changes were not thought through and will actually do more harm than good.”
ENDS