social welfare

The impact of the Bedroom Tax in Scotland: interim report (fourth report of session 2013-14)

The removal of the spare room subsidy, also known as the bedroom tax or under occupation penalty, came into force on 1 April 2013. The aim of the policy was twofold: to reduce housing benefit expenditure, and to use existing public sector housing stock more efficiently.

The government estimated that 80,000 claimants in Scotland would be affected by the bedroom tax, with an average weekly loss of £12. This represented approximately 33% of the working age housing benefit claimants in Scotland.

The 'Bedroom Tax' in Scotland: welfare reform committee 5th report, 2013 (Session 4)

Report on the Housing Benefit Under-Occupation Charge to the Welfare Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament.

The research was commissioned to give a deeper understanding of scale and the depth of those affected (at Scottish and local authority level) by the under-occupation charge and the capacity of the system to meet down-sizing demand via one bed vacancies coming forward in a given year (a rough proxy for capacity).

The expert working group on welfare

The Expert Working Group on Welfare was established to review the Scottish Government's work on the cost of the current benefits system, their plans for delivery of benefit payments in an independent Scotland, and provide views on transitional issues that would be relevant to the continued delivery of benefit payments in the event of independence.

This report presents a preliminary forecast of benefit spending in Scotland through to 2017-18 that covers the actual costs of the payments to individuals, and the costs to government of administering these payments.