THE Bedroom Tax has cost Dumfries and Galloway residents over £13 million since 2017, according to new figures.
Figures obtained by South of Scotland MSP Emma Harper show the total cost of mitigating the Bedroom Tax since the Scottish Government took on responsibility for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2017.
A total of £13.56 million has been spent in Dumfries and Galloway since April 2017 aimed at bridging the gap in household finances left by the tax. This year the total cost for the region is forecast to be £1.98 million.
The tax reduces the amount paid to tenants to help with rent payments if the UK Government believes they have too many rooms in their house.
Housing campaigners have consistently slammed the tax, with Shelter Scotland condemning the policy as “blunt” and “unfair”.
Commenting on the figures published in response to her questioning, Emma Harper said: “These figures show the extent to which Scotland is having to pay for the policy failures of Westminster simply to ensure people keep a roof over their head.
“The Bedroom Tax is a direct attack on families and on low income households, and it should be consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs along with the Conservative party who imposed it on Scotland in the first place.
“But the fact is Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party have done nothing to scrap it and are clearly happy to continue expecting the people of Scotland to pay for their economic illiteracy.
“This is despite virtually every housing charity and campaigner in the country calling for reform of the system and the abolition of a tax that hammers the poor hardest.”
