UK government loses supreme court fight over bedroom tax

The supreme court has ruled against the UK government’s attempts to force the bedroom tax on 155 partners of people with severe disabilities, in a decision that will hamper ministerial attempts to water down human rights legislation.A unanimous judgment delivered by the court’s president, Lady Hale, ruled that applying a 14% housing benefit reduction to a man, referred only as RR, was a breach of his right to home under the Human Rights Act. The case has potentially wider implications by bolstering the primacy of the Human Rights Act against any attempt to enforce secondary legislation, like the bedroom tax and potentially other welfare changes, where it can be shown that to do so would breach human rights.