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Channel 4 Dispatches Benefits Britain:The Bedroom Tax

(6 Posts)
MamaCaz Tue 11-Feb-14 11:41:01

Did anyone see this last night?

I've just watched it now on Catch Up and IMO, it presented quite a balanced view of the impact of the Bedroom Tax.

We even got to see Joe Halewood towards the end!

I did notice an anomaly though: at one stage they look at, in their words, "how the policy is now working for some people", via house-swaps. They focus on a chain, where a young couple with a toddler have been able to move from a one-bed property into a two-bed property, while the woman who lived there has now been able to move into a four-bed house with her partner and three children. What no one commented on was the fact that this family is now officially underoccupying - with three children, they are not "entitled" to four bedrooms. I'm not saying that's wrong - simply that it doesn't show that the policy is working as it doesn't comply with the professed aims of the policy!

durhamjen Tue 11-Feb-14 11:47:57

I saw that, Mamacaz, but I thought, no, they must be right. I was looking forward to the followup programme but it did not happen.

MamaCaz Tue 11-Feb-14 12:46:18

Thinking about it now, I did overlook the possibility that one of the children is over 16, in which case entitled to a separate bedroom.

MamaCaz Tue 11-Feb-14 13:09:09

I'm being really slow today - at least two of the three children would have to be over 16 for her not to be under occupying a four-bed house, not one!

durhamjen Tue 11-Feb-14 13:33:19

I've just tried to watch it again on catchup, but my computer will not let me. I'll have to sort it out again. Grandson on it on Sunday night.
You are right about the ages, but I cannot remember how old they were.

MamaCaz Tue 11-Feb-14 16:26:56

I don't think that their ages were mentioned.

Changing the subject slightly, I wonder if any MPs will bother to stay behind at the end of tomorrow's PMQs to support Ian Lavery's 10 Minute Rule Bill calling for bedroom tax to be abolished!