£20m will be made available for Scottish tenants hit by the bedroom tax
- 21 Oct
Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister has announced that an additional £20m will be made available for Scottish tenants who have been hit by the bedroom tax next year.
It was announced last month in the Scottish budget that £20m would be given to top up discretionary housing payments to help those struggling after cuts to housing benefit, and on Friday Ms Sturgeon announce that an additional £20m will be made available next year.
"I promise that we will continue to do all we can to help. But only an independent Scottish Parliament will give us the powers we need to scrap the bedroom tax," she told delegates in Perth. "People in Scotland are paying a heavy price for Westminster decisions. We are doing the most we can with the powers we currently have to mitigate the worst impact of those decisions."
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: "[The announcement] means that local authorities can continue the lifeline they have offered to thousands of households across Scotland struggling to pay their rent as a direct result of the unfair and destructive bedroom tax. This move will buy struggling householders some time to save their home but the only long-term solution is for the UK government to banish the bedroom tax once and for all", reports Inside Housing.
Andy Young, policy and membership manager at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said: "We recognise the Scottish government's efforts to mitigate the worst impacts of welfare reform and any help for people facing the ‘bedroom tax' is welcome. Extra money will help some people for a short time, but it's not a long term solution. The only solution is to repeal this unfair and incompetent policy."
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/386434
Related articles
- 10 Mar
THE STATUS OF THE SOCIAL CARE SECTOR REQUIRES IMPROVEMENTs
It was also found that the social care sector has the following characteristics:Social care seems like an adjunct to the NHS instead of being an important service in its own right. While the...
- 29 Apr
Scottish Welfare Fund grants see a 13% rise in applications
Data from the Scottish Government has shown that the number of applications to councils under the Scottish Welfare Fund has increased by 13% in just the last year, reports The Courier.Over the most...
- 16 Jan
Local welfare assistance funds held back by councils
The Centre for Responsible Credit using Freedom of Information requests carried out a study which found that 127 local authorities spent 52.8% of their £148.5m sharing of the local welfare...
- 13 Jan
Landlord scheme has saved the NHS thousands of pounds
The groups - Oldham Council, Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Oldham Housing Investment Partnership - consist of 10 social landlords who co-invested in the ‘Warm Homes Oldham'...
- 05 Jan
Calls for NHS funding
Stevens also called for an end to the ‘boom-bust' approach. Stevens told the Financial Times he hoped for more annual funding in addition to the £2bn lifeline that the Chancellor, George Osborne,...
- 30 Dec
New Fundraising Campaign Launched by Hospital Charity
The campaign encourages its supporters to partake in its ‘Every £1 Counts' fundraiser by making a donation and sharing a ‘pound selfie' on Facebook and Twitter throughout January.The charity are...
- 08 Dec
Home care sector facing crisis due to workers’ wages
A study by contractor Mears and the Local Government Information Unit have reported that councils should ensure they pay providers to enable them to pay ‘at least' minimum wage salaries.Liberal...
- 06 Oct
Supported housing service for women and their children has received funding for community garden
Endeavour Housing Associaiton's Rainham House temporary accommodation service has been awarded funding for their Roots and Shoots garden project. Working in partnership with community allotment...
- 03 Oct
Social landlords urged to make do without grants
Speaking to Inside Housing at the Conservative Party conference this week, Mr Lewis said: "If housing associations want to survive without government funding, that's a good thing."He said it would...
- 02 Oct
Supporting People budget cut by £10m by the Welsh government
A draft budget shows the government announcing plans to cut the budget for Supporting People from £134.4m in 2014/15 to £124.4m in 2015/16 which is a drop of 7.4%, reports Inside Housing.Despite...
Support Solutions 5th National Housing Support & Social Care Conference 2014 The Social and Financial return seminar was very helpful, helped me think about our approach to bidding, negotiating for funding and keeping hold of what we have! The New Technology seminar was really an eye opener- really got me thinking about potential applications for older people. P.M - Four Housing
