Come on Prime Minister, stop saying disabled people are exempted from the Bedroom Tax – they are not.

David Cameron has been asked at various Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ's) about the impact of the Bedroom Tax (also called removal of the Spare Room Subsidy) on disabled people. 

The answers he gives are simply untrue, like this reply:

The Prime Minister: "Obviously, what we have done is to exempt disabled people who need an extra room".

We should all be deeply disturbed at reports that disabled people and their families are protected from this policy. The stark evidence since the policy was implemented in April 2013 clearly shows they are not.

In December 2013, 50 charities wrote to the Government saying that the hardship experienced by disabled families because of the Bedroom Tax was being ignored because of inaccurate reports that disabled people are exempt from Bedroom Tax.

Although, it has to be noted that on 8th January 2014, the DWP issued new guidance which states that tenants who have been continuously entitled to Housing Benefit (HB) since at least 1st January 1996 and who have occupied the same property since that date are exempt from the bedroom tax

However the guidance states clearly that this exemption will only apply until the law is changed as the DWP are looking to close this 'loophole' shortly.

Once the law is changed those continuously entitled to Housing Benefit (HB) since at least 1st January 1996 will once more have the bedroom tax applied.

So, let me be totally clear there is no exemption for disabled people who need an extra room, there are a number of groups who are exempted.

Pensioners are exempted completely. Foster carers, families with a child in the armed forces and families with children temporarily studying away from home are allowed additional rooms before being charged.

The only exemption specifically for disabled people is due to a Court of Appeal judgment instructing the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to consider an additional room if a disabled person needs an overnight carer.

Disabled people who need an extra room for any other reason – such as being unable to share a room, or needing a room for medical equipment – are not exempted.

Disabled people are mainly affected by the Bedroom Tax, of the 660,000 families affected nearly two-thirds, 420,000 have a disabled adult in them.

The Government’s impact assessment provides no information about disabled children so the 420,000 number is necessarily an underestimate.

The deliberate intention of the policy is not to exempt even the most severely disabled – but instead to ask them to apply for a hardship payment.

When challenged about the unjust effects of the Bedroom Tax on groups such as the disabled, the Government often refers to the increased budget for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs).

The nature of these payments means that while they help in the short term in the longer term they create uncertainty and insecurity. DHPs cannot exempt anyone from a charge – they can only offer temporary relief, and then only if you can get one.

The payments are temporary and come from a cash limited pot so if your council has run out of money for year you will not get a payment no matter how compelling your claim is.

These payments are discretionary – no-one has an automatic right to receive one and should you be refused there is no right of appeal.

Unhelpfully when challenged about the effects of the Bedroom Tax, ministers often imply the whole DHP budget is to cope solely with the Bedroom Tax.

In reality the £190 million fund is to deal with the housing problems associated with the whole raft of welfare reforms, in addition to the original purpose of the fund – helping people with housing problems not related to welfare reform.

To give an idea of the scale of the funding gap, imagine that:

·         There are no problems caused by the Housing Benefit Cap, the Total Benefit Cap, Council Tax Benefit reductions or the introduction of Universal Credit.

·         That there are no administrative errors in the DWP causing late benefit payments,

·         No-one has difficulties with their rent for reasons unrelated to the benefit system.

Even in this fictional paradise there would still not be enough money to pay the Bedroom Tax for the disabled families affected!

The truth is clear, that disabled people are not exempted from the Bedroom Tax and the Discretionary Housing Payments don’t provide the security of an exemption, nor are they funded anywhere near well enough to help all the people it has been carelessly suggested they will help.

This is not the first time the Prime Minister has falsely claimed that groups of disabled people are exempted from Bedroom Tax nor is he the first minister to make such a false claim – Ester McVey has that honour.

The reality that vulnerable people are facing hardship should not be batted away with untruth and confusion.

In the report, ‘The lies we tell ourselves: Ending comfortable myths about poverty’, it highlighted the biblical teaching that without truth there cannot be justice and righteousness in a society.

 “If our society misrepresents those who are at its margins, blaming them for their poverty and ignoring the massive injustices at work, then all of us are set to fail.

We will see greater depths of poverty; greater suffering as children are entrenched in circumstances which are damaging to body, mind and soul.

We will see a society which is unsustainable and divided, where those with power or privilege are wilfully blind to those without.”

This is why I believe it is crucial that Mr Cameron and his ministers' stops saying that disabled people are exempted from the Bedroom Tax - when they are clearly not.