8 February 2012

Welfare Reform Act, which introduces universal credit and introduces the “bedroom tax”, receives royal assent.

What: Among the act’s measures, it provides for the introduction of the new universal credit, and the replacement of DLA with PIP, as well as limiting contributory ESA to 12 months (for those placed in the work-related activity group), and introducing the bedroom tax (“spare room subsidy”).

Why significant: This was the legislation that introduced a string of hugely-controversial measures that would profoundly impact disabled people over the next decade and be linked to multiple deaths. (See 4 May 2013 for one of the first known deaths to be linked to the bedroom tax).