SOME pensioners with spare rooms will be hit by reductions in Housing Benefit under the so-called "bedroom tax".
Existing claimants in homes where someone of working age also lives will be spared the welfare cut, but new claimants under the Universal Credit scheme will face reductions.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne said the Prime Minister needed to "get a grip", adding: "Ministers promised to protect pensioners from the bedroom tax, but thousands are set to lose out.
"David Cameron had better get a grip fast, before this scheme descends into total chaos."
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "We want to reassure pensioners claiming housing benefit that they will not be affected by this policy now, or when Universal Credit begins, even if one partner is below pension age."
On Saturday, The Herald reported that a loophole in the law means up to 100,000 Scots might be able to get around the tax because the law is unclear about the definition of a bedroom.
The Glasgow Advice Agency obtained legal opinion stressing that although it was for a council to decide what was a bedroom, there was no legal definition.
A lawyer had found local authorities would be "going wrong in law" if they thought every room that could possibly be slept in was classified as a bedroom, whatever its use.
Meanwhile, a ComRes poll of 2000 adults found a majority of 46% to 35% believed the principle of the change was "only fair" at a time of economic austerity.
