What is the bedroom tax and why is it so controversial?

BEDROOM Tax has sparked protests and an outpouring of outrage since it was introduced in 2013.

The policy is part of the British Welfare Reform Act 2012 and outlines that council or social housing tenants with rooms deemed to be "spare" face a reduction in housing benefit.

Today Supreme Court justices ruled the government discriminated against some disable people with the controversial tax.

What does it mean?

Essentially, the reform targets people who government think might be living in council houses that are too big, or have too many bedrooms, for their need - so they are in effect fined.

Called the under-occupancy policy, it was dubbed the Bedroom Tax as critics who condemned the changes faced by people on benefits amounted to a tax, due to the lack of social housing for affected people to downsize to.

having one bedroom more than the calculated allowance means a reduction in housing benefit of 14 per cent, and two "spare" bedrooms means that a tenant will lose 25 per cent of their housing benefit.

The penalties, which can see people affected losing a significant amount of their income or risk being evicted, have also been criticised as having a disproportionate impact on disabled people.

In 2016 it was announced that the penalty would be extended to elderly people, despite promises from the government to protect the elderly from benefit cuts.

What are the rules of the policy?

The rules apply to all those of working age from April 1, 2013.

One bedroom is allowed for an adult couple, two children of the same sex under 16, two children who are under 10 regardless of sex, any other child (other than a foster child whose main home is elsewhere), a non-resident carer for a person needing over night care, a room required by a disabled child who cannot share a bathroom, adult children who are in the armed forces.

Some exemptions - people in temporary accommodation, shared ownership accommodation and homes such as houseboats and mobile homes.

If a "spare" bedroom is created because someone has died, a council housing tenant's housing benefit will not be affected until a year after the death.

Why is it so controversial?

The policy was unsurprisingly most popular among home owners and least popular among social renters.

In July 2014 a YouGov poll found 49 per cent of people opposed it and 41 per cent supported it.

Conservative minister Iain Duncan Smith argued it was an "unfair situation where the tax payer is subsidising people to have home, paid for by the state, with spare rooms they do not need".

Two-thirds of the people affected are registered as disabled and many found themselves suddenly liable for the Bedroom Tax after deaths.

In July 2012 the High Court rejected the premise that the policy was a breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights due to the effect on disabled people.

In May 2015 a father successfully challenged the penalty at a tribunal.

His son stayed with his three nights a week in his "spare" room.

In January of this year judges at the Court of Appeal ruled the bedroom tax is discriminatory and unlawful.

And today, Supreme Court justices ruled in favour of Jacqueline Carmichael, a spina bifida sufferer who lives with her husband in a two-bedroom  flat in Merseyside and Paul and Sue Rutherford, from Pembrokeshire, who care for their disabled grandson.