advice on :bedroom tax:

catmandu_2

could someone advise please what size room can be classed as a bedroom. my daughter has moved out of home and my local council are charging us 30.00 per week for a box room. which seem excessive to me we pay 84.21 per week rent and we get 52.00 hb.per week. can anyone let me know if these figures are correct. we live in south wales.

Puzzcat

catmandu wrote: »

could someone advise please what size room can be classed as a bedroom. my daughter has moved out of home and my local council are charging us 30.00 per week for a box room. which seem excessive to me we pay 84.21 per week rent and we get 52.00 hb.per week. can anyone let me know if these figures are correct. we live in south wales.

You would get a better response if you post this on the benefits thread.

GRINTS1981

I am sure thaton TV the other day they said 72 square foot
I could be wrong
On TV this lady come out and checked both rooms and said he should not have to pay bedroom tax

Sorry I can not help more HTH

[Deleted User]

70 sq. ft, I think

GwylimT

My brother has a third bedroom with no window and too small to hold a single bed, he is subjected to the 'bedroom tax'.

It is down to the individual council, if they did not class it as a bedroom on the tenancy they wouldn't have houses you there.

harveybobbles

It depends what it says on the tennancy rather than what the square footage is.

If the tennancy says its a three bedroom house, then it's a three bedroom house.

You could apply for a descretionary housing payment for the difference.

fatbelly

I'm not an expert on housing law (or benefit law) but the nhf says

The Federation is aware of a rumour circulating on facebook and elsewhere that bedrooms under 70 sq ft should not be counted for the purposes of the social housing size criteria for claimants of Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. This rumour is incorrect. It appears to be based on a misreading of the space standards set out in the Housing Act 1985 for the purpose of defining statutory overcrowding.

The UC/HB social housing size criteria depend on the number of bedrooms in the property, and for this purpose a room is either a bedroom or it is not. There is no such thing as a half-bedroom, or a bedroom deemed suitable for occupancy by one person but not two. In principle, the size criteria regard any room designated as a bedroom as being capable of accommodating a couple or two children (unless the children are of different sexes and one of them is over 10).

It has been suggested that requiring two persons to occupy a small bedroom might amount to statutory overcrowding under Part 10 of the Housing Act 1985. Section 326 of the 1985 Act requires that a room to be occupied by two persons should be at least 110 sq ft in area (10.22 sq m), but for this purpose children under ten count only as “half persons” and babies under the age of one are disregarded. The corresponding minimum sizes for 1.5 persons, 1 person, and 0.5 persons are respectively 90, 70, and 50 sq ft (8.36, 6.50, 4.65 sq m), room sizes that are fairly small by ordinary standards.

The room sizes in s326 of the 1985 Act are for the purpose of deciding whether the statutory space standard is met, for which purpose s326(2)(b) of the Act specifically states that “a room is available as sleeping accommodation if it is of a type normally used in the locality either as a living room or as a bedroom”.

The fact that the Act counts living rooms, not just bedrooms, as available for sleeping means that it is almost inconceivable that any social housing could be so fully occupied that the 1985 Act is breached, since even if a designated bedroom is smaller than the 1985 Act lays down, the Act contemplates that the occupant(s) could sleep in the living room instead.

There may sometimes be a legitimate question about whether a particular room should properly be designated as a bedroom, but this is a matter for landlords to determine

http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/policy-news/social-housing-size-criteria-and-statutory-overcrowding/