The Liberty backed Judicial Review of the bedroom tax on grounds of Art 8 discrimination against separated families has been given permission. There have been a few FTT decisions on this ground (see the FTT decisions page), so the JR will be quite decisive....
Ignoring the Court of Appeal?
[Update 9 June 2014. The Statement of Reasons in this case is here. Well worth considering.] There has been an odd bedroom tax development, one on which details are tantalisingly still absent. Mr & Mrs Carmichael have won their appeal to the First Tier...
Child’s rooms and odd rooms
I've added a couple of new bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decisions to the FTT page. There is a Newcastle decision (Reasons here. Known as the Isos decision after the landlord who supported the appeal) which is a separated family decision. The appellant's...
Room use and Uratemp
A successful FTT bedroom tax appeal in Birkenhead has raised some new questions over 'room use' as an argument. The decision notice is here (HT Speyejoe). The appellant had moved into the '3 bedroom' property on marriage. He and his wife had lived there. A...
Bedroom tax notes, only just out of date.
I was one half of a seminar at Garden Court Chambers on Thursday last week on the bedroom tax for housing advisors. The excellent Liz Davies of Garden Court tackled the Court of Appeal decisions in MA & Ors and the benefit cap judgment in SG & Ors, R...
March miscellany
A couple of bits and pieces. The DWP has issued a circular in the wake of the Court of Appeal judgment in MA & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2014] EWCA Civ 13 (Our report coming soon, honest). The...
Bedrooms and a family home
A new First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision from Liverpool, again a successful one, and this time on wholly new grounds. The decision statement is here (and also on the FTT decisions page) The Applicant was separated from his partner in 2006, when...
On folding beds and sleeping bags
A new bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decision from Monmouthshire raises some issues on the FTTs' approach to room use. The decision notice with summary reasons is here (and also on the FTT decisions page). The Claimant lived in the property with his wife...
Negative Instrument
The DWP has laid the Statutory Instrument amending the benefit regulations to do away with the 'pre 1996 claim' exemption to the bedroom tax. It is to come into effect on 3 March 2014, making all those exempt liable for the bedroom tax from that date. (It is...
Bedrooms in Wales
Another First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision, this time from Aberystwyth. The Decision Notice is here (and on the FTT decisions page). No statement of reasons yet, but the decision notice gives an outline. The Claimant lived in what was classed as...
Upper Tribunal on bedrooms
There has been some excited talk about an Upper Tribunal decision on a Local Housing Allowance appeal which apparently offered a definition of 'bedroom'. Obviously, as an Upper Tribunal decision, this would be binding on First Tier Tribunals, even though...
Imported words.
The Greeks have a word for it, and if they don't the Germans can probably knock one together. On the menu for today are hubris, nemesis, Schadenfreude and harmatia. Harmatia Our friends 'Charles Henry', the not-solicitors, appear to be determined to destroy...