Bedroom Tax
The Scottish Government is doing all that it can to help the people who are hit by the bedroom tax, with £20 million of funding available this year and up to a further £20 million available next year. That money has been given to local authorities, which can provide discretionary housing payments to tenants who are in financial difficulties. I urge those tenants to contact their local authority so that they may access the money provided by the Scottish Government and pay their rent in full. Mitigating the full impact of welfare reform will not be possible. The only way we can end the bedroom tax and protect Scottish families is if we have full control of the welfare system in an independent Scotland.
Of course, the discretionary housing payment is meant to mitigate some of the effects for some and to enable people to stay in their homes. Will the minister give me her view on the level of discretionary housing payment funding that comes from the Department for Work and Pensions and the way that the Scottish Government is able to top it up? Is the combined sum adequate to keep people in their homes?
The level of DHP funding from the United Kingdom Government is totally inadequate. Scotland receives only 8.9 per cent of the total DHP budget, despite having 12 per cent of those affected. The DWP estimates that Scotland and London have the same numbers affected by the bedroom tax, yet in 2013-14 Scotland received £15.3 million compared with £58.2 million for London. The funding provided by the Scottish Government will take seven out of 10 people out of the bedroom tax altogether, which should go most of the way towards alleviating the position for those who are unable to pay the tax.
Although that funding helps some, others feel very much threatened by the potential loss of their home. Does the minister share my concern about the recent report that the Tory and Labour-run South Ayrshire Council is sending out threatening letters to families who are finding themselves in arrears as a result of the bedroom tax?
I share the member’s concern about what we read in the press about the Tory-Labour administration in South Ayrshire, particularly the reference to children’s services in the letter that it issued, and I accept that that caused a lot of concern for many tenants. I wrote to the council leader on 3 November expressing my concern and urging the council to ensure that tenants in financial difficulty can access the funding, whether through discretionary housing payments or through the Scottish welfare fund. On 2 October, I wrote to South Ayrshire Council informing it of Scottish Government funding of more than £389,000, giving it a total of £651,419 to help tenants who are affected by the bedroom tax. The council is also aware that that funding will be provided in the next financial year, too.
Surely the message of the figures is that more than 80,000 Scottish families are struggling to pay their rent due to the effect of this iniquitous tax and that the half measures of mitigation, both from the DWP and from the Scottish Government, are not doing enough to relieve them. The Scottish Government is not doing all that it can to mitigate the effects of the bedroom tax. It could find the full £50 million that is needed to banish the effects altogether, so that all families would know that that support was available to them. That is exactly what the Northern Ireland Executive has done, with the agreement of the Treasury and the DWP. Will the minister reconsider the position and banish the bedroom tax from Scotland?
We have made it very clear that how we will banish the bedroom tax in Scotland is by having a yes vote in next year’s referendum.
Does the minister share my concern that the work of successive Scottish Administrations to reduce homelessness will be undermined by the bedroom tax, which is a pernicious policy that we did not choose, from a Government that we did not elect?
I absolutely agree that this is a pernicious policy from a Government that we did not elect. The Scottish Government is leading the way on homelessness throughout Europe. Homelessness is a devolved matter, a fact that the Scottish Parliament has taken on board not only with this Government but since the Parliament came into being. It is appalling that we have a UK Government whose policies are undermining our approach. Our priority for homelessness remains that we should take preventative measures, and we will do everything that we can to ensure that our homelessness policy is not affected by UK Government measures.
Appalling though the bedroom tax is, its impact on councils and housing associations is nothing compared with what will happen when the payment of universal credit moves from landlords on to tenants. The Northern Ireland Executive successfully lobbied to prevent that from happening there. Has the minister approached the UK Government to ask it not to pay universal credit direct to tenants?
As I said to Iain Gray, I have asked that very question and have asked that the money in Scotland be paid direct to landlords and not to tenants, because that is what the landlords want and, more important, it is what the tenants want. I made that point very strongly to the UK ministers when I last met them.
The minister will be aware that I have written to the Prime Minister twice about the impact of the bedroom tax on people who suffer from motor neurone disease. Can the minister give any comfort to MND sufferers—many of whom will have only 14 months to live—who have been told by the Labour-appointed Lord Freud to work longer hours and take in a lodger?
That is part of the reason why we are lobbying on the matter. I agree absolutely with the member that the suggestions about taking in a lodger and working and all the other suggestions that have come from the UK Government are entirely inappropriate. They are inappropriate for most people, but they are particularly inappropriate for people who have a disability—particularly one as severe as MND. We have continually lobbied for disabled people to be exempt altogether from the bedroom tax, and that is something that we will continue to lobby on.
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