Courtesy Sunday Mail

SOME councils have seen a tenfold increase in discretionary housing payment applications since the introduction of the benefit cut earlier this year.

APPEALS for emergency handouts from councils have quadrupled since the Tories’ bedroom tax was brought in.

Thousands of families have applied for help to pay their rent since the benefit cut came into force in April.

In some parts of the country, councils have seen a tenfold increase in applications from tenants for discretionary housing payments (DHP).

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith pledged that the bedroom tax would cut the country’s benefit bill.

But instead, councils are using millions of pounds from their own budgets to help tenants hit by the tax avoid eviction.

An investigation by the Sunday Mail has revealed that 15,558 social housing tenants in 10 of Scotland’s biggest councils have applied for DHP since April 1, the date the bedroom tax was introduced.

That compares with 3553 applications between April and July last year.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: “It is ridiculous that Iain Duncan Smith is taking away money with one hand and it is being made up with other public funds.

“If the Scottish Government stepped in with extra funding, it would ensure a lot of suffering was avoided.”

Scotland’s biggest council, Glasgow, have received 8172 applications for emergency help since April, up from 2197 in the same period last year. So far, they have paid out £439,250 to 4180 families.

Applications to North Lanarkshire have leapt from 174 to 2306 and Fife Council have received 1845 applications since April compared with 372 for 2011-12.

Under the scheme, council and housing association tenants lose 14 per cent of housing benefit if they have one extra room and a quarter for two or more.

The changes were designed to free up much-needed social housing for families.

Around 100,000 tenants in Scotland are affected, the majority of them disabled.

Scotland is getting £10million in DHP for 2013-14 but councils claim the amount is woefully inadequate.

North Lanarkshire Council are putting in £562,000 to help tenants struggling with the rent, Aberdeen City Council £340,000 and West Lothian Council £200,000.

North Lanarkshire Council leader Jim McCabe said: “The Department for Work and Pensions is making £1 available to fund every £9 of housing benefit lost.

“Given such huge underfunding, we have to manage the funds very carefully through short-term assistance and awards to those most in need.”

Scottish ministers met the UK Government last month to discuss more funding for DHP – but ruled out giving councils more cash themselves.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We cannot mitigate the full impact of the cuts without full powers over welfare or access to all our resources – but we have pledged to scrap the bedroom tax within a year of independence.”

A DWP spokeswoman said: “It is not affordable to pay housing benefit for people to have spare rooms.

“This reform will save hard-working taxpayers almost £1billion over the next two years and help restore fairness to our housing benefit system.”