Iain Duncan Smith
THE callous bedroom tax continues to trample across the lives of the most vulnerable people in Scotland.
Amputee Andrew McIntyre now has to find an extra £50 a month for his two-bedroom flat after his elderly mother has been forced to move to a care home.
It is only because of her illness that he has found himself in a flat deemed to be too large for him under current rules.
The social landlord who rents the flat to McIntyre charges him the same rent but his housing benefit is cut by £50 a month.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith knows this is not an isolated case and that there is not enough single bedroom accommodation for people affected by the changes.
People like Andrew will live on less, or more likely, fall into arrears and poverty trying to keep up with rent payments.
Transition funding is available but that is a sticking plaster solution when a plan of home building would create work and homes for social rent.
That is part of Labour’s long-term plan but Ed Miliband and Ed Balls’ firm have to answer what they would do about the hated bedroom tax.
The Scottish Daily Record
