Bedroom tax to hit 60,000 across West Midlands
Around 60,000 people across the West Midlands are likely to lose between £500 and £1,000 a year under controversial housing benefits reforms, a charity has said.
The so-called "bedroom tax" is set to hit 5,110 people in Sandwell, 4,094 in Walsall, 4,012 in Wolverhampton and 3,842 in Dudley according to the National Housing Federation.
In Cannock Chase it is estimated that 830 are affected, with 744 in Lichfield, 683 in Stafford, 652 in South Staffordshire and £758 in Wyre Forest.
The bedroom tax is the name given to work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith's reforms of housing benefit which will see the government claw back payments from people in social rented or council housing if they have one or more spare rooms.
The estimated annual loss is from just over £500 for people with one extra room to £1,000 for two spare rooms.
Of the 60,000 across the West Midlands affected by the changes, 37,800 are disabled.
Elizabeth Humphreys, West Midlands lead manager for the National Housing Federation said:
"The Government's bedroom tax is flawed and will unfairly penalise thousands of people in the West Midlands. The 'one-size-fits-all' approach takes no account of disabled people's adapted homes, of foster parents who need rooms to take children in, or of parents sharing custody who will lose the room for their child at weekends."
