The bedroom tax is continuing to cause problems in Dundee, according to recent headlines.
The number of tenants in rent arrears has more than doubled in the past year in the city, and a report for the council has blamed the increase on the Government's "under occupancy" charge.
That the bedroom tax is continuing to cause problems is not a surprise. Indeed the complaint from housing associations, homelessness charities and the many other opponents of the measure was always that its effects would be delayed.
Both the impact on tenants and on social landlords would become gradually apparent, they said, as those "punished" for living in accommodation deemed to be bigger than they needed gradually succumbed to housing benefit which never quite meets their housing costs.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations earlier this year said the tax would cost housing associations and cooperatives £79.1 million over three years, inevitably leading to rent rises. This, too, was always going to lead to increased affordability problems over time for tenants.
So the report which went to councillors this week shows the number of Dundonians who owe more than £250 in rent has increased 152 per cent. Whereas fewer than seven per cent of tenants had arrears of more than £250 in 2013, that figure is now nearly 17 per cent.
The problems now being caused by the tax - which the Government refers to as the spare room subsidy, or the underoccupancy charge - were predictable. Aimed at a minority of tenants receiving large sums in housing benefit while occupying more rooms than they needed, the law threw the net much wider.
By cutting the amount of money paid out to anyone deemed to have extra space, the policy targeted people with disabilities who needed extra space for carers or for equipment, for example. It also affected those who had taken on accommodation in good faith, not realising that it would later be deemed too big for them.
That would arguably be fine if councils and housing associations had sufficient stock of smaller properties to offer tenants as an alternative. But in many areas that is far from easy, making downsizing impossible.
A charge you cannot avoid looks like a tax, which is why the more popular name for the policy has stuck.
There have been attempts to mitigate the effects of the charge, with Discretionary Housing Payments available for those who are struggling.
Meanwhile a defeat for the Government at Westminster earlier this month means tenants cannot now be penalised unless they have first been offered alternative accommodation and refused it.
But despite the fact that the bedroom tax is now widely regarded as unjust and unworkable, the Dundee figures are evidence that its true impact is only just emerging.
Labour's Rachel Reeves said yesterday that the party would abolish it after the next General Election; that is if it lasts that long.
But it may well do. The Coalition Government still claims that it is a fair policy which is saving taxpayers more than £1m a day.
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