Muslims can Avoid Bedroom Tax by Making it a Prayer Room Hoax

Story:

Muslims can Avoid Paying Bedroom Tax by Designating One Bedroom as a Prayer Room

Other Versions

1. Bedroom tax – recent development, muslims get one room tax exempt if used as a prayer room, so get the old bible out and get a room tax free.

2. Bedroom Tax Starts Today!

(Unless Your A Muslim)

Muslims can claim exemption and their spare room used as a prayer room.

Now are you waking up? ………

Picture about Muslims can Avoid Bedroom Tax by Making it a Prayer Room Hoax — Muslims can Avoid Bedroom Tax by Making it a Prayer Room Hoax

Analysis:

The messages suggest that Muslims can get an exemption from paying the ‘Bedroom Tax’ by designating one of their spare rooms/bedroom as Prayer room. This is NOT a fact.

About the ‘Bedroom Tax’ Act

These circulating messages actually relate to the newly introduced “Bedroom Tax” in UK – that Muslims can avoid paying it by designating one of their would-be bedrooms or spare rooms as Prayer rooms or places or worship. Firstly, this is not a tax as such, but was termed so by the media. It is in fact a part of the UK Parliament’s Welfare Reform Act 2012, which made changes to the rules concerning a number of benefits offered within the British social security security system. Among these provisions are changes to housing benefit which came into force on 1st April 2013. This included an “under-occupancy penalty” that reduces the amount of benefit paid to claimants if they are deemed to have too much living space in the property they are renting. These changes are aimed to reduce welfare dependency and support working families.

Ever since the introduction of these reforms in April 2013, the UK government has been facing criticism. However, the claims in the present messages are hoax. Yes, there are some exemptions in the act, like for people not of the working age, or parents of teenage military personnel, but there is no such facility or exemption for Muslims, or for that matter, any other religious group, such that they can allot one of their spare rooms as prayer room and avoid paying this under-occupancy penalty (termed as bedroom tax). Muslims have the same payment criterion like everyone else.

If the claim in these messages was a fact, then it would have easily made into news and big stream media, which is not the case. There were similar messages circulating in the past, even before this ‘Bedroom tax’ was introduced, which said Muslim families can avoid paying ‘council taxes’ by setting aside a room as their prayer area. These were repeatedly dismissed to be hoax.

Therefore, the ‘Bedroom tax’ exemption (under-occupancy penalty actually) for Muslims by making one of their spare rooms as a prayer room is simply a hoax. Messages like these are only meant to spread false propaganda around religion and thereby create differences among people. Such messages should not be encouraged or shared.