Roger is worried about the effects of the bedroom tax on his constituents. He was disappointed by the 30th July High Court ruling which found that the bedroom tax does not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people. Roger does not believe that it is fair to make disabled people suffer the brunt of the cuts while the richest in society enjoy their most recent tax cut.
Roger says: “My constituents have contacted me because they are so anxious about how the bedroom tax is affecting their families.
A single mother with two young children, one of them with severe behavioural problems, was beginning to build up substantial rent arrears because of cuts in housing benefit resulting from both children needing a bedroom of their own. Birmingham Council eventually relented and agreed that the children needed separate rooms and full housing benefit was restored with arrears.”
The problems caused by the bedroom tax are not limited to disabled people. Roger is also concerned about the effects of the tax on people who are willing to move into a smaller property, but cannot because there are none available. These people may already be living on very tight budgets, and cannot afford to pay the under-occupation charge. There have already been reports of parents skipping meals to try to make ends meet.
Roger says: “No one should be forced into homelessness just to prove an ideological point. Of course, in theory the taxpayer should not pay for unoccupied rooms in social housing. But in practice, either these rooms are being used to provide essential living space for disabled people or their carers or there are simply no smaller properties available for people to downsize into.”

This article appeared in the August edition of Roger's newsletter 'Postcard from Parliament'