Paul Murphy MP has told Parliament that the Government’s bedroom tax has been “an unmitigated disaster” in Torfaen, labelling it one of the worst developments in benefits in his political lifetime.
Torfaen has seen an income reduction of £935,735 as a result of the policy, the highest of any local authority in Wales.
Speaking in a debate about the impact of changes to housing benefit in Wales Mr Murphy condemned the controversial policy which came into effect in April last year and which Labour has committed to repeal. He quoted figures from local social housing provider Bron Afon who have seen 268 tenants fall into arrears who had never in their lives before fallen behind with their rent. They estimate that at least £62,319 of rent arrears can be directly attributed to the bedroom tax.
Mr Murphy went on to describe the impact this was having on his constituents and pointed to the “alarming” increase in demand for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) since the policy was introduced. In 2012-13 Torfaen Council received around 700 applications for DHP but in just a year there was a fivefold increase in applications to 3500.
The Torfaen MP said: “In my constituency, the bedroom tax has been an unmitigated disaster and failure. It has hit 18.3% of housing benefit claimants in Torfaen including many vulnerable and disabled people in our communities.
