Housing Benefit Cuts Defeated By House of Lords

The government suffered the first of what may be a series of heavy defeats over the welfare reform bill when peers threw out plans to dock housing benefit from people who have spare bedrooms. Ministers had proposed that social housing tenants deemed to have one extra bedroom would lose £12 a week and people with two or more extra bedrooms £22 a week. But peers voted by 258 to 190 to limit the penalties to only those households with two or more spare bedrooms and those with one extra room who have been offered suitable alternative accommodation. The cost of the rebellion is put at £500m, but the government will overturn the vote when the bill returns to the Commons in the New Year. Read more on the Guardian website.