A PLANNED 'bedroom tax' has been branded "shocking" after estimates it will hit more than 100,000 Scots households.

The UK Government is to introduce changes to Housing Benefit that mean people of working age with a 'spare' bedroom will have their payments cut.

The Scottish Government said projections show the plan will hit 105,000 homes in Scotland, when it comes into force in April.

Critics have said it will impact on tenants who are expected to move to a smaller property, but with a shortage of homes they will end up with higher rents they will struggle to meet.

Scottish Government Housing Minister Margaret Burgess told East Kilbride SNP MSP, Linda Fabiani, that one in five households could lose out with up to £52 a month taken from their benefits.

In total the loss to tenants in Scotland is estimated at between £60m and £65m a year.

Housing association bosses in Glasgow have already warned the Welfare Reform Committee at Holyrood that tenants will fall into arrears and put pressure on housing associations who will struggle to continue to provide accommodation.

Ms Fabiani, a member of the Parliament's Welfare Reform committee, said: "I'm absolutely shocked at these figures, which reveal the true extent of the damage caused by the Tories' bedroom tax.

"The claims that people can simply move to a smaller property to avoid this tax would be laughable if it were not so serious.

"In most cases people can't just up sticks and move.

"Yet again we see the Tories taking money from the most vulnerable in society and from the Scottish economy.

"This is £60m that will not be spent in Scotland, which will hurt economic recovery."

The Scottish Government analysis showed 105,000 households will be affected by the tax, with 83,000 under occupying by one room and another 22,000 with two or more spare rooms.

It is thought that with 586,000 households in the social rented sector, 18% will be hit with a benefit cut.

Housing bosses and charities such as Shelter, have already warned there is a shortage of affordable homes and fear that cuts to the amount of subsidy available to housing associations from the Scottish Government will make it difficult to meet the target of building 30,000 new, affordable homes in the next five years.

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk