How the bedroom tax works
* The bedroom tax is not actually a tax at all, but changes to housing benefit.
* Anyone deemed to be living in a house that is too big for their needs will get less benefit from April, 2013.
* Payments will be cut according to extra rooms in homes. If you have one spare room, housing benefit will be cut by 14%. With two, the cut is 25%.
* Every adult or couple in a property will be allowed their own bedroom. Children under 16 and of the same gender will have to share a room. All children under the age of 10, regardless of gender, will have to share.
* The changes will only hit council and housing association tenants. If you rent a property from a private landlord you will not be affected.
* Pensioners are exempt from the cuts. For a couple, only one person needs to be of pensionable age in order to escape the benefit changes.
* Parents with a child at university will be allowed to keep his or her bedroom, without facing a reduction in housing benefit, as long as the student stays at home for at least two weeks a year.
* Anyone with a spare bedroom, like a divorced parent who has a spare room for when their child/children come to stay, will see a reduction in their housing benefit.
* The new rules allow for one bedroom for a person over 16, a couple, two children of the same sex under 16, two children who are under 10, any other child, (other than a foster child or child whose main home is elsewhere), and one additional room for a carer (or group of carers) providing overnight care.
