Okay a question for the English here; what the hell is this "Bedroom Tax" everyone is going on about?

This is not in fact a tax. It is a reduction in social benefits. If you are receiving benefit for any reason whatsoever (unemployment, permanent disability, or just low-paid) and if you are living in social housing and if you are judged to have a house which is bigger than your needs, then your benefit will be reduced by a commensurate amount.

I am trying to answer the question without political bias because you seem to be resident outside England. Social housing is provided by a large local authority. Those who are resident in Private Landlord properties are exempt from this reduction in benefit.

There is an appalling shortage in social housing in the UK brought about by years of political incompetence. So for instance, tenants in a three-bed house who really only need a two-bed room house can be forced either to move to a smaller house, or sacrifice a portion of their benefits.

Hence the name "bedroom tax".

from an American's point of view, it is no different than the way HUD Section 8, 236 and BMIR properties operate in this country. Frankly, the british system seems to be a bit more forgiving. In the US, in order to receive rental subsidies, the household size must conform to the bedroom size of the unit. Underutilized space by the tenant does not reduce the subsidy, but rather the tenant will be offered an apartment that is the appropriate size. If they reject the "move" to a suitably sized unit, they will be evicted and in most cases lose the Section 8 qualification. This often happens in family housing

properties where the family with children moved in years ago and now the children are adults and have left the parent(s) with spare bedrooms paid by subsidy portions related to a child who has become an adult.

It is aimed at those who live in homes paid for by the tax payers.

If you are in a house others pay for the new rules say it should not be bugger than you need....why should the taxpayer pay for three bedrooms if you only need one?

If you want to stay in the three bedroom house you can but are expected to pay something towards the difference in cost.

Apparently it is not fair.

If I buy a house or rent a house I pay more for three bedrooms than one.....but then that money comes out of my pocket not the bottom less pit of entitlement.

There is a massive influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe expected next year. To welcome them we are trying to free up as many larger council houses as possible. To these ends small families with a spare bedroom are being asked to down size. Regretfully to persuade them to do so a charge will be made on their spare room/s. if they refuse to move. This does not apply to private properties or privately rented properties.

I personally think if a family is not able to be offered a smaller property they should not be subject to the charge?

There is no such thing as a "bedroom tax". It was a bit of shorthand coined by the Labour opposition to describe reductions in benefits to welfare claimants who live at public expense in a house which is bigger than that which they require. Next year we will be suffering a huge influx of new claimants from Eastern Europe and the "bedroom tax" is merely designed to provide these additional immigrants with somewhere to live by ensuring that those being housed at public expense have a property which is appropriate to their needs but no bigger.

If you live in social housing and you have a spare room they are effectively making people pay for that spare room to basically try to push them out into smaller housing despite the fact that there is a lack of availability in housing. Also maybe less people would need social housing if private landlords didn't charge so much.