Court gives claimants permission to bring JR over so-called "bedroom tax"

Claimants were last week given permission to proceed with a judicial review of the Government’s new housing regulations.

Law firm Leigh Day & Co, which is acting for the claimants, argued that the regulations – which were due to come into force on 1 April – were discriminatory.

Under the changes – dubbed by critics as a “bedroom tax” – a new regulation B13 will be introduced into the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006.

This will mean a single person or couple with no children would have their housing benefit cut by 14% where they occupy a two-bedroom home and by 25% where the home has three or more bedrooms.

Leigh Day claim that the new regulation is discriminatory on the basis that the impact on disabled people of the changes would be far greater than on those non-disabled people who are in receipt of the benefit.

The High Court is now expected to hear the case in early May.

Welcoming the granting of permission for the case to proceed, Leigh Day lawyer Ugo Hayter said: "This is an excellent result and the first step in over ruling what we believe is an unfair piece of legislation which has a disproportionate negative consequences on disabled people and is therefore discriminatory.

"We urge the Government to think again and not to punish the most vulnerable for what are negligible savings, the Court has ordered an urgent hearing at the beginning of May, we hope that this will mean that the terrible anxiety our clients and many others are currently facing will be shortlived."

For more information on the case and the claimants, click here.