Foster carers & Armed Forces exempt from 'bedroom tax'

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has announced that foster carers and army personnel who receive housing benefit will be exempt from the so-called "bedroom tax".

In a Written Ministerial Statement, he wrote: "People who are approved foster carers will be allowed an additional room, whether or not a child has been placed with them or they are between placements, so long as they have fostered a child, or become an approved foster carer in the last 12 months.

"Adult children who are in the Armed Forces but who continue to live with parents will be treated as continuing to live at home, even when deployed on operations."