I mentioned before Christmas that it had been discovered that people who had lived in the same property since 1996 and been in continuous receipt of Housing Benefit during that time were being wrongly charged Bedroom Tax.
The Government has now admitted this error, and some local authorities have already started making repayments. However, it seems that many others are still denying all knowledge of it, despite (supposedly) having been informed via a circular.
Please, if you know anyone who might fall into this exempt category, make them aware of the situation and tell them not to let their local authority fob them off with excuses such as "we know nothing about it", or "our records don't go back that far". And it is the responsibility of their local authority, not of their landlord, despite widespread denial of this by councils.
To quote Joe Halewood, a housing professional who has done his utmost, both on Twitter and via his excellent blogs, to expose the lies, the misinformation and the unfairness surrounding the Bedroom Tax:
They all have strong grounds of ‘maladministration’ by their local councils using the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and against the DWP with the Parliamentary Ombudsman or PO.
speye.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/exempt-and-wrongly-had-bedroom-tax-imposed-the-maladministration-complaints-are-here/
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Nothing like the last one, of course! 
sitting on my hands 
- so the taxpayer has to refund a slight loss of housing benefit (not a tax) while families are forced to live in overcrowded conditions and would love social housing with security of tenure etc.
back to sitting on my hands before my BP goes up.
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