Disabled left £10 worse off a week

The National Housing Federation poured scorn on the coalition's bedroom tax yesterday as it showed discretionary council top-ups for disabled people will fail to cover even a fifth of the average shortfall.

The federation called on the government to repeal the "ill-conceived" bedroom tax or "at the very least" exempt disabled and other vulnerable people.

From April the bedroom tax will see housing benefits rationed out even more meagrely, with a 14 per cent benefit cut for any tenant with a spare bedroom.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced a £30 million boost to councils' "discretionary housing payments" following harsh criticism that the tax would hit disabled people using spare rooms for equipment or a severely disabled child.

Mr Cameron boasted in Prime Minister's Questions last week that the fund was proof "this government always put disabled people first."

But with 230,000 disability claimants caught out by the cuts, the £30m would work out to an average £2.51 per week for each person - leaving them still £11.50 worse off.

The National Housing Federation said tenants would have to cut back further, even though official figures showed disabled adults were twice as likely to live in low-income households.

"This perverse tax is doing exactly what the government promised they wouldn't - hitting the most vulnerable people in our society," the federation's chief David Orr said.

A DWP spokeswoman told the Star the payments were "never designed" to cover the shortfall from housing benefit cuts.