The Government should take ‘immediate action’ to exempt disabled people, their families and carers from the bedroom tax, a national coalition of more than 50 charities has said.
In a letter to work and pensions minister Iain Duncan Smith, the Disability Benefits Consortium said the changes were having a ‘devastating impact’ and discretionary payments were ‘not working’.
Disabled people and carers were being left in ‘constant fear of losing their homes’, the consortium said.
The letter read: ‘It [the policy] is hitting disabled people who need an extra room for essential home adaptations or equipment which enable them to live independently; seriously or terminally ill people who sleep on hospital beds and cannot share a room with a partner who cares for them and parents caring 24/7 for disabled children who need a room for a care worker to stay in to give them a night off from caring.
‘Our organisations are hearing time after time from disabled people, carers and families of disabled children who are being forced deeper and deeper into debt, and falling behind on their rent, putting them at risk of eviction.
‘The Government must act now to exempt disabled people and carers from this policy.’
