ALMOST 5,000 grants have been paid out locally by the scheme used to mitigate Westminster’s so-called bedroom tax, new figures show.

Between April and September this year, Renfrewshire Council made 4,420 awards via the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) scheme, totalling more than £2million.Meanwhile, East Renfrewshire Council made 520 awards, totalling more than £175,500.

Many cases included people being affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy, dubbed the bedroom tax by opponents, the Scottish Government report containing the figures said.

The so-called bedroom tax is an informal name for a measure by which the amount of housing benefit paid to a claimant is reduced if the property they are renting is judged to have more bedrooms than necessary. DHPs may be awarded when a council considers a housing benefit claimant requires further financial assistance towards housing costs.

Social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said making the payments was the ‘right thing to do’, with more than 70,000 households across Scotland receiving help to stay in their homes as a result.

Ms Somerville said: “We are providing the necessary funding in this area because it’s the right thing to do.

“However, it is galling we are spending so much on mitigating the worst effects of UK Government cuts.We would rather be spending those resources lifting people properly out of poverty rather than simply helping them keep their heads above the water.”