Scottish ministers face bedroom tax backlash

Further Con-Dem cuts in April will see housing benefits rationed out even more meagrely, with only one bedroom allowed for each couple or individual over 16.

Tenants face a 14 per cent benefit cut if they have a spare bedroom and stand to lose a full quarter of their housing benefit for two or more spare rooms.

Critics have warned the policy will disproportionately hit disabled people who need a separate room for equipment or a severely disabled child, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who could be endangered by shared accommodation with strangers.

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown called on Scottish ministers to set aside a £50 million safety net.

The SNP could not mitigate the impact of all welfare reforms, he said.

"But Scottish ministers are not powerless to act to protect council taxpayers who will have to foot the bill of increased homelessness or those vulnerable tenants at risk of losing their home," he said.

A Scottish government spokesman said they shared Shelter's views on the cuts.

Ministers were doing what they could to mitigate the worst of the welfare cuts and had already pledged to replace the Con-Dems' 10 per cent cut to council tax benefit budgets.

"But in the face of Westminster cuts to Scotland's budget, ultimately, the work we are doing can only go so far," he said.