A HOUSING charity wants £50 million from the Scottish Government to tackle the impact of the so-called bedroom tax.
Shelter Scotland's call is part of a three-point plan it wants to discuss in an emergency summit of social landlords.
Under UK Government reforms, tenants on housing benefit will lose a portion of it if they are deemed to be under-occupying their home.
Shelter director Graeme Brown called for the Scottish Housing and Welfare Minister, Margaret Burgess, to set up the summit.
"We agree with the Scottish Government the UK Government must reverse these cuts and Scottish ministers are not able to mitigate all the impact of these reforms," he said. "But Scottish ministers are not powerless to act to protect council tax payers who will have to foot the bill of increased homelessness or those vulnerable tenants at risk of losing their home.
"That's why we think the Scottish Government should make up to £50m available to help mitigate the impact of the first year of the bedroom tax."
The reform will hit almost 100,000 households from April, the charity warned.
The three-point plan also calls for a guarantee that no-one will be evicted for bedroom tax arrears or deemed intentionally homeless if they are evicted for that reason. Shelter's approach comes as the Scottish Government calculates eight out of 10 homes to be hit by the change include an adult with a disability.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Government is doing everything it can to mitigate some of the worst of the UK welfare budget cuts."
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