MITIGATING the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax cost the Scottish Government more than £70 million last year, new research has shown.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to scrap the tax, which sees cash deducted from benefits if the recipient has a spare room in their home, at this month’s Budget,
Research from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the SNP, has shown that just shy of 100,000 households in Scotland are impacted by the Bedroom Tax.
The Scottish Government spent £70.4m on the mitigation of the policy last year as £81.8m was deducted from the benefits of Scots in 2023/24.
Since 2017, more than £419m has been spent on trying to ensure Scots are less affected by the policy.
The research found households in Scotland are more than twice as likely to be hit by the Bedroom Tax than those in England, with 15% of housing benefit claimants affected in Scotland compared to 6% in south of the Border.
SNP deputy Westminster leader Pete Wishart said: “Thousands of low-income families across Scotland and the UK are being pushed into poverty by punitive Labour Government policies like the bedroom tax.
“Voters in Scotland were promised change but so far all they have seen is Labour Government ministers lining their own pockets with more than £800,000 of freebies, while imposing painful austerity cuts on the rest of us.
“It’s not a good look that the Chancellor seems to be more interested in bagging designer clothes for herself than tackling poverty.
“She must use the UK Budget for a total reset, including by abolishing the bedroom tax without further delay.”
Wishart added the Bedroom Tax is a “cruel policy” that “punishes the poorest households simply for living in their family homes”.
The SNP are expected to ramp up pressure on the UK Government in the weeks leading up to its first major fiscal event at the end of this month, with health spending also due to be a major ask of the party, in an effort to increase funding for the health service in Scotland.
“It’s shameful that the Labour Government made the political choice to keep it in place”, the MP said.
“Politics is about priorities – the SNP government is spending hundreds of millions tackling poverty and cleaning up the mess that successive Labour and Tory UK governments have imposed on Scotland.
“If the Chancellor fails to act, the Labour Government will push even more families into poverty and cost Scotland millions of pounds every year.”
