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Liberty to seek Judicial Review of bedroom tax
‘Today Liberty announced it will seek Judicial Review of the Government’s controversial new “bedroom tax” policy based on the impact on separated families with shared custody of children. The announcement comes days before the High Court is due to rule whether a challenge based on the effect on disabled people should be allowed to proceed.
The scheme – part of wider welfare reforms – will cut residents’ Housing Benefit if they are deemed to have a “spare” room in their home. It will apply from April this year to all council or housing association tenants of working age. Liberty wants to challenge the lawfulness of the proposals – on the grounds they are irrational and a violation of Articles 8 and/or 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights; the right to a private and family life and no discrimination ....’
Admirable sentiment, but it seems to me that this argument went out of the window with Humphreys v HMRC - if anything the discrimination against minority carers in that case was worse but was found to be proportionate.
I have always felt that in the specific case of HB there is another angle which was not properly dealt with in Humphreys, although I would concede that Humphreys has set the bar extremely high for any parent seeking to make a human rights case.
I can see how the anti-double provision sentiments expressed in Humphreys make sense when you consider that family benefits are suppoised to be used to support children and it doesnt matter which parent is the conduit for that money. But in the case of HB the absence of bedooms for children sleeping over makes it difficult for the minority carer to have a family life at all and this goes to his/her own personal Article 8 rights. I am not aware of any case in which this unique HB aspect has been decided.
Even so I would be surprised if Liberty succeeds