"Some 59% of tenants - more than 300,000 - affected by new "spare room subsidy" rules were in arrears five months after the changes came into effect last year"
This is surely a problem disaster area for the future.
"The new interim report, carried out by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research and Ipsos MORI, looked at the initial impact of the policy.
The report - the first official study into the change - found most people were paying by cutting back on household essentials, and a quarter had borrowed to pay their rent.
During the first five months, 41% of affected tenants had paid their additional rent in full but 59% were struggling - 39% had made some contribution to the additional rent but 20% had paid nothing at all."
Even with advice there is likely to be a shortage of accommodation for those needing to rent appropriate accommodation. There is also likely to be shortage in revenue for council and Housing association. With a potential issue for investment in infrustructure
Blame Tenants?
"The analysis for the DWP found that while many tenants hit by the cut had wanted to move, they had been unable to do so owing to the lack of smaller properties.
While 19% of tenants had registered to downsize, 4.5% had managed to do so within the first six months of the policy"
To set up and implement a policy there has to be the flexibility in resource to meet the demand. In this instance there is clearly not.
" David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, which campaigns for affordable housing, said the government's policy remained "flawed".
He said: "Time and time again it has been shown that the bedroom tax is pushing people into rent arrears and people have been unable to downsize because of a lack of smaller properties.
"Now the figures from the DWP prove it is not working, surely now it is time for the government to admit they got it wrong and repeal this ill-thought policy."
If the builders are saying this then the Government needs to review this prior to the next General election.
This is my argument that there is a ticking time bomb which can lead to more social issues in many cases out of the control of the claiment. Add this to the Universal Credit system and the country has a right to have some concerns
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