Welfare Reform

The Legislation - what does it say?

On 8 March 2012 the Welfare Reform Act received Royal Assent.  The Act legislates for the biggest change to the welfare system for over 60 years.  If you would like to view the information on this piece of legislation you can do so by clicking here which will take you to the website of the Department of Working Pensions.

We have created information pages on 'bedroom tax' and 'universal credit'.  These pages are designed to provide tenants and other users of this website with information on what the reforms are, what they mean for tenants and what the Association can do and will do to assist tenants.  We will be providing regular updates to our tenants via our newsletters (distributed in April, August and December) on the impacts of the Welfare Reform.  If you would like to view our newsletters you can do so by clicking here and this will take you to the area of our website where the newsletters are stored.     

One of the reforms will see the introduction of something called the 'size criteria in the social rented sector'.  This is a cut to the amount of benefit that people can receive if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their Council or Housing Association tenancy.  This is commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’.

The ‘bedroom tax’ will apply to all tenants of working age from 1 April 2013 onwards with a percentage of the monthly rent being reduced prior to the tenants benefit entitlement being applied.  The cut is 14% of the monthly rent if the tenant has 1 spare/unoccupied bedroom and 25% of the monthly rent if the tenant has 2 or more spare/unoccupied bedrooms.  

Universal Credit: The government plans to abolish and replace a number of benefits which some of you may be receiving (Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, ESA, Tax Credits & Housing Benefit) with a single award called Universal Credit. 

If you would like to find out more about what is planned and how this may impact on you please click on our Universal Credit page.