Bedroom tax leaves thousands in arrears across region
Thousands of housing tenants have fallen into arrears across Staffordshire and the Black Country in the weeks since the controversial bedroom tax was introduced, it has emerged.
In Wolverhampton, rent debts owed by council house tenants stand at £99,800 since April 1.
In Cannock Chase, arrears stood at £249,800 on May 5, including £12,800 debts attributed to the bedroom tax, a rise of more than five per cent. Dudley has seen an eight per cent increase in rent arrears compared to the same period last year while in Sandwell arrears have rocketed by 15 per cent.
Local authority leaders have had their first chance to review the impact of the cuts to benefits a month into the changes.
They warn that tenants are in danger of losing their homes if the trend continues. Many have assigned officers to help those struggling with payments.
Under the welfare reforms, 14 per cent of a tenant's housing benefit is removed if they have one spare bedroom, 25 per cent if they have two or more.
Wolverhampton Homes, which rents houses owned by the city council, said 2,943 tenants were affected by the changes in benefit. Of these, only 558 were already in arrears at April 1, when the changes came into force.
However 72 per cent of affected households have made at least one payment, leaving 420 who have not.
In the past 12 months the number of people on Dudley's rent arrears books has grown from 8,122 to 9,381, bringing the total debt to £1.4 million.
Housing bosses in Walsall have identified 2,709 tenants who are directly affected by the bedroom tax although they will not know until July how many have fallen into arrears.
