New figures can reveal the devastation of the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax - Glasgow has seen the highest number of claimants seeking emergency help of any council in the UK with 4,064 more people in the past month seeking emergency help in the form of a DHP payment, while North Lanarkshire has seen the number of claimants rise from just 37 over four months last year to 1,451 this April alone.
There has been a 338 per cent leap in the number of people applying for emergency handouts across the UK in the month since the bedroom tax was imposed.
Commenting, SNP Westminster spokesperson for Work and Pensions Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP said:
“These figures are absolutely astounding - they show the true impact of the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax just one month in.
“The Bedroom Tax is an inherently unfair policy. People on the lowest incomes are paying the price for structural problems affecting the supply of affordable housing in the south of England. The Bedroom Tax is also unworkable - instead of addressing the underlying problems, it undermines the ability of social landlords to invest in the kind of affordable housing that is so badly needed.
“The Tory/Lib Dem coalition are hitting the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society with their austerity measures, while the richest receive a cut in taxes.
“The Bedroom Tax will be imposed on Scotland despite over 90 per cent of Scottish MPs voted against it.
“In Scotland we have an opportunity to change, so that we make our own democratic decisions. To vote No in next year’s referendum would mean leaving Scotland at the mercy of the Westminster system, which on any measure is failing. With independence we have the opportunity to do things differently and better - and we will scrap the Bedroom Tax in an independent Scotland."
“The Bedroom Tax is an inherently unfair policy. People on the lowest incomes are paying the price for structural problems affecting the supply of affordable housing in the south of England. The Bedroom Tax is also unworkable - instead of addressing the underlying problems, it undermines the ability of social landlords to invest in the kind of affordable housing that is so badly needed.
“The Tory/Lib Dem coalition are hitting the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society with their austerity measures, while the richest receive a cut in taxes.
“The Bedroom Tax will be imposed on Scotland despite over 90 per cent of Scottish MPs voted against it.
“In Scotland we have an opportunity to change, so that we make our own democratic decisions. To vote No in next year’s referendum would mean leaving Scotland at the mercy of the Westminster system, which on any measure is failing. With independence we have the opportunity to do things differently and better - and we will scrap the Bedroom Tax in an independent Scotland."
Information from research carried out by The Independent newspaper