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The Department for Work and Pensions is apparently weighing up its options having lost four "Bedroom Tax" cases at the First Tier Tribunal.

Now, we first have to recognise that we know about tax, whereas the “Bedroom Tax” is, strictly, a restriction of Housing Benefit. So it is not really a tax, as such. But then, nor is it a “Spare Room Subsidy”, as the government would prefer it be known.  

Nomenclature aside, it will almost certainly cause serious problems for very many of the most vulnerable people and families in the UK.  Bad enough, that the United Nations has apparently sent a Special Rapporteuse to check that the government is observing its obligations under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Independent has (also) claimed that 96% of those affected would be “trapped” in their current housing, simply because of a lack of availability of properties with fewer bedrooms.  The website “Full Fact” has a more objective appraisal of  the underlying figures, at 'Bedroom Tax': Are 96% of Those Affected "Trapped" in Larger Houses? and laudably “believes in the possibility of accurate and informed debate”.  We too dare to dream.

So, we read with interest that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is considering its options after four successful appeals against the Bedroom Tax. The DWP declined to define a bedroom for the purposes o f the benefit restriction, presumably trusting the tribunals to find the right of it. And they may well have, although it likely makes for unhappy reading for the DWP. Apparently having regard to long-standing regulations, the tribunal hearings considered that a room’s size, shape and intended use were relevant, rather than merely take a landlord’s word for what constitutes a bedroom as the DWP might have preferred.

We understand that the cases are not yet properly in the public domain, but there are numerous reports, including at Inside Housing's DWP Mulls Fresh Bedroom Tax Advice.

This may well prove encouraging news for those people who are indeed trapped by the Bedroom Tax. Of course, the DWP may try now to make a new definition for what constitutes a bedroom, perhaps once the Special Rapporteuse has safely left the country – although her final report to the UN’s Human Rights Council is not for a few months yet, it seems she may already have made up her mind.