Welfare Reform Act 2012

Welfare Reform Act 2012

United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision for universal credit and personal independence payment; to make other provision about social security and tax credits; to make provision about the functions of the registration service, child support maintenance and the use of jobcentres; to establish the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and otherwise amend the Child Poverty Act 2010; and for connected purposes.
Citation	5
Introduced by	Iain Duncan Smith Lord Freud
Territorial extent	England, Scotland and Wales (see section 149 of the Act for Northern Ireland)
Dates
Royal assent	8 March 2012
Commencement	April 2013
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which makes changes to the rules concerning a number of benefits offered within the British social security system.^[1] It was enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 8 March 2012.^[2]

Among the provisions of the Act are changes to housing benefit which came into force on 1 April 2013. These changes include an "under-occupancy penalty" which reduces the amount of benefit paid to claimants in social housing if they are deemed to have too much living space in the property they are renting. (This already applied to tenants in private rental accommodation).^[3][4] Although the Act does not introduce any new direct taxes, this penalty has been characterised by the Labour Party and some in the media as the "Bedroom Tax", attempting to link it with the public debate about the "Poll Tax" in the 1990s.^[5] Advocating the Act, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) stated that the changes would reduce welfare dependency and support working families.^{[citation needed]}