Eddie Duxbury, chair of the Blackburn-based National Disabled Action Group, has hit out at the policy, calling it an example of the government implementing ‘cruel cuts and punishments’.

He criticised the government for welfare cuts that attack ‘the disabled, the unemployed, and the poor’.

He said: “The government’s slash and burn austerity was never about fixing the economy, it’s about getting rid of Britain’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

“It attempts to set one section of the public against another.

“I would say that 65 per cent of disabled people have had their benefits cut because of the bedroom tax, and the problem with it is they say you can move to a smaller premises, but there are no smaller premises available, they’ve all been taken.

“The bedroom tax is hitting disabled people because they can’t downsize, because they need extra rooms for equipment.

“And really it’s not making the government any money anyway, it’s costing them more.

“It’s an unworkable policy, and it’s an unspeakable pressure on the poor.

“This government really are persuing the poor unreservedly.

“They are trying to drain the ocean to get at the fish.”