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Iain Duncan Smith not only a Buffoon but an April Fool...........
Peter Barker, the man whose 'Bedroom Tax' loophole could help up to 40,000 housing benefit claimants to get their money back
Iain Duncan Smith's nemesis has never sat on the green benches of parliament. In fact, he has never met the Work and Pensions Secretary at all.
But Peter Barker, a 53-year-old self-confessed anorak from Romford, Essex, made a discovery that is likely to cost the minister millions. He found a loophole in the so-called bedroom tax which could mean that up to 40,000 housing benefit claimants can claim money back.
Overall the controversial policy affects around 660,000 housing benefit claimants who are deemed to have one or more "spare" rooms and have between £14 and £22 a week deducted from their benefits.
Tenants who have occupied the same property continuously and taken housing benefit for it since 1996 should never have been included in the policy, Mr Barker discovered. When the Department for Work and Pensions drafted the controversial legislation it did not update housing benefit regulations dating from that year.
Those affected include some who are facing eviction because of the bedroom tax- or who have been forced to move to smaller properties.
Mr Barker, who is a consultant on housing policy, put up his findings on a blog called Rights Net and it instantly went viral. Now more than 10,000 people have viewed it - rather more than his usual blog audience of "two or three hundred".
Last week the Government conceded that Mr Barker was onto something, issuing a circular telling councils that exempted tenants should be refunded all money deducted under the policy since 1 April.....................
