Conor reiterated his call for the bedroom tax to be scrapped, following the Supreme Court ruling that the bedroom tax is unfair and discriminatory.
Last week, a woman who has spina bifida and a couple who look after their severely-disabled grandson won their Supreme Court appeals against the bedroom tax. The court ruled that the government’s changes to housing benefit discriminated against them.
Since April 2013, housing benefit for people in the social rented sector deemed to have a spare bedroom has been reduced by 14%. In the North West over 63,000 homes have been affected and over 2000 households in St Helens.
In 2013 the Government gave local authorities more funding for discretionary housing payments, in part to allow them to cover the costs of the bedroom tax in some instances. Statistics from DWP in July showed that 40% of all local authorities had spent all the money allocated to them.
Commenting Conor said:
“I would like to pay tribute to all the families for their tireless work on bringing this issue to court. The true cruelty of the Tories bedroom tax has been exposed.
“The bedroom tax is a cruel and unnecessary policy. And the Government have failed to provide adequate funding for local authorities to mitigate the worst effects.
“As a result, the ill-thought-out and callous bedroom tax punishes low-income social housing tenants and those most vulnerable in our society.
“A Labour Government would scrap the disgraceful bedroom tax, ending the misery faced by people in my constituency and across the country.”