Glasgow family beat the bedroom tax with Govan Law Centre's bedroom tax toolkit

Here GLC Prevention of Homelessness Project (POHP) caseworker, Garry Burns, gives an update on one local family who have used Govan Law Centre's (GLC) bedroom tax toolkit and successfully challenged the bedroom tax.

"The family used GLC's toolkit and sent a dispute form into the local authority advising that due to a disability within the family they required an overnight carer. The local authority started asking questions about who the carer was looking for the address of the carer who provided the overnight care.

The family actually didn't have one person who provided care because like most families they support one another and there are several family members who lend a hand. We supported the family in how best to deal with this issue and aided them in writing a letter back to the local authority advising of their own personal circumstances.

Within a week the local authority responded to our client advising that they would now be exempt from the bedroom tax. Govan Law Centre were able to give the family advice and support throughout all of this and give advice on a number of legalities pertaining to benefits, not just the bedroom tax to take away some of the stress in dealing with their local authority. We continue to support our clients every day; the bedroom tax is just one issue that we are currently supporting our community with.

When we need to take a case on we do, but when a client is only in need of a bit of support to challenge decisions themselves, we empower our clients with the tools to fight back and obtain their legal rights. We are proud that we have supported this family in challenging their local authority and would say that this is a fantastic bit of news for the individuals involved, but crucially it shows what can be done when you challenge decisions".

GLC informační průvodce - Govan Law Centre publishes its 'Challenge the Bedroom Tax Toolkit' in Czech

Govan Law Centre (GLC) has published its highly successful 'Bedroom Tax Toolkit' in Czech, and is distributing the Czech version of its toolkit through Govanhill Law Centre to assist members of the EU migrant worker communities in Glasgow. The Czech version of GLC's bedroom tax toolkit is freely available here.

GLC's 'Challenging the Bedroom tax Toolkit', aims to provide people with a means to utilise their rights of review and appeal in law, in terms of changes in the eligibility rules to UK housing benefit from the new 'under-occupancy' rules, which came into force last month.  

The GLC bedroom tax toolkit was developed to protect our clients and other tenants across the UK, including in terms of the 'anti-test case' social security rules, whereby if future legal challenges to the bedroom tax were successful (there are over 10 judicial reviews ongoing across the UK at present) people would be able to receive back payments, subject to any successful court challenge.

GLC has been careful not to give false hope to people; we are empowering and enabling people to act upon their human rights to challenge bedroom tax and housing benefit decisions. Legal arguments are untested, although there are some decisions which point in the favour of disabled tenants in particular in the UK.

GLC's toolkit has been e-mailed to over 7,000 people across the UK by us directly, and has been distributed many times more through social media and online resources, and is available through a number of advice agency websites, including Shelter Scotland, Shelter Wales and Birmingham Law Centre.

Govan Law Centre challenges bedroom tax decisions before 1 April 2013 and poor advice by local authorities

Govan Law Centre is concerned that many local authorities in Scotland, and across the United Kingdom, have been issuing 'bedroom tax ' decision letters to tenants before the under-occupancy changes to UK housing benefit law came into force on 1 April 2013 (regulation 5).  We are currently challenging this practice and will provide progress updates on this blog in due course.

GLC is also aware that some local authorities in Scotland and England have wrongly advised tenants that they cannot appeal a decision to reduce their housing benefit because of the bedroom tax - that advice is wrong, and any such refusal would be unlawful, as decisions to reduce housing benefit are subject to review and appeal in terms of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations, as amended, in the normal way.

Many councils - including Glasgow City Council - have issued tenants across the UK with decision letters reducing their housing benefit in light of the new 'B13' bedroom tax regulation (see also here for a consolidated set of the 2006 Housing Benefit Regulations as amended) in February and March of this year. In general, tenants have one month to seek a review and/or appeal of a housing benefit decision (unless they have grounds for a late appeal), but many tenants will have only been aware of their rights relatively recently - for example GLC's bedroom tax toolkit was only published earlier this month.

However, the 2006 Housing Benefit regulations make it clear that 'a change in circumstances' which affects entitlement (in this case, deductions from the commencement of the bedroom tax on 1 April 2013) 'shall take effect from the first day of the benefit week following the date on which the change of circumstances actually occurs' (see reg 79 of the 2006 regulations as amended).

Reg 90 of the 2006 regulations makes it clear that decision letters should be intimated to tenants 'forthwith, or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter, or within 14 days of that decision'. The English courts have generally held if a defective decision letter does not cause prejudice to the claimant then its validity should be upheld; however, if local authorities refuse to review bedroom tax decisions issued before 1 April 2013 by claiming the tenant's dispute letter is too late, there would be grounds to argue the council had indeed caused prejudice to the tenant.

The DWP's own guidance on the bedroom tax (HB/CTB Circular A4/2012) advises local authorities not to issue bedroom tax decisions before 1 April: 'As an award notice cannot be sent before the legislation comes in to force, you may wish to combine this notification with the annual review letter in April to avoid multiple communications' (see para 25). There is therefore little doubt that many local authorities have acted prematurely.

What should you do?
If you feel aggrieved by a reduction in your housing benefit because of the bedroom tax and believe you are entitled to the use of all of your bedrooms on human right grounds, download GLC's bedroom tax toolkit and challenge your council's decision - you still have time to do this, and if your decision letter was issued in February or March, use the arguments above to say why your challenge is not late.

Launch of GLC 'toolkit guide' calling for mass take-up challenge to bedroom tax housing benefit decisions

Govan Law Centre has launched a free 'toolkit guide' to help tenants challenge cuts to their housing benefit with the introduction of the bedroom tax from this month.  Tenants issued with a ‘bedroom tax’ decision by their local council only have one month to challenge it. They can only appeal later than this if they have a good reason for the delay, such as illness.

GLC's toolkit contains a number of untested legal arguments which tenants can select and insert into a pro forma ‘Dispute Form’. Some of these relate to court challenges taking place in England and Wales, and if these are successful tenants can only benefit from them for past deductions if they have lodged a ‘Dispute Form’ with their council because of the 'anti-test case rules'.

GLC’s toolkit provides step by step guidance and illustrations on how to complete a ‘Dispute Form’ – what to say, where to send it to, where you can get further advice, what will happen next.  We hope the toolkit will be of assistance to both tenants and advisors alike. We believe many tenants will have grounds in principle to challenge

If you would like a copy of GLC’s toolkit guide please visit our webpage here, and we will provide you with the option to download the toolkit in either PDF or rich text formats, and in addition we will e-mail you the links to download it too. We are asking for the first part of your postcode so that we can work out the level of take up across the country.

Although our guide is aimed specifically at Scotland for simplicity, the guidance and pro forma guidance is equally applicable in England and Wales as housing benefit is a UK-wide law, and the arguments for challenging the bedroom tax are also UK-wide.