Ian Mearns

Labour MP for Gateshead

@IanMearnsMP

Housing Benefit Reduction For Those Deemed to have Excess Bedrooms

There have been votes in Parliament on the introduction, and operation of, a policy to restrict housing benefit for those in social housing deemed to have excess bedrooms. This policy has been called the "Bedroom Tax" by Labour and some commentators .

Photo: rchappo2002

Ian Mearns almost always voted against reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax")

TheyWorkForYou has automatically calculated this MP’s stance based on all of their votes on the topic. You can browse the source data on PublicWhip.org.uk.

Major votes

Scoring Agreements

Agreements are when Parliament takes a decision without holding a vote.

This does not necessarily mean universal approval, but does mean there were no (or few) objections made to the decision being made.

No scoring agreements are part of this policy while this member was elected.

Minor votes

  • On 8 May 2018: Ian Mearns voted to give local councils the freedom to decide if benefits to cover housing costs should be reduced in respect of excess bedrooms in cases of new local council secure tenancies offered to victims of domestic abuse. Show vote
  • On 14 Oct 2014: Ian Mearns voted for an exception from the excess bedroom benefit penalty for people who require an extra bedroom due to their need for care. Show vote
  • On 5 Sep 2014: Ian Mearns voted for exemptions to the benefit penalty applied to social housing tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms and to require a report on affordable housing. Show vote
  • On 26 Feb 2014: Ian Mearns voted to retain an exemption from housing benefit penalties due to being deemed to have excess bedrooms which applied to those who've continuously received the benefit in the same property since before 1 January 1996. Show vote
  • On 18 Dec 2013: Ian Mearns voted to publish the results of research into food banks; to freeze energy prices; for a water affordability scheme; for measures to end abuses of zero hours contracts; to incentivise those paying the living wage and to abolish the under-occupancy penalty for social housing tenants. Show vote
  • On 1 Feb 2012: Ian Mearns voted to require the housing cost element of universal credit to be sufficient to cover the actual cost of housing for social tenants in cases where no offer of alternative accommodation has been made and the household has no more than one spare bedroom. Show vote

Informative Agreements

Agreements are when Parliament takes a decision without holding a vote.

This does not necessarily mean universal approval, but does mean there were no (or few) objections made to the decision being made.

No informative agreements are part of this policy while this member was elected.

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For an explanation of the vote descriptions please see our page about voting information on TheyWorkForYou.

Profile photo: © Parliament (CC-BY 3.0)