Worcester Community Housing, which owns 5,000 properties in the city, says contact has been made with the 450 tenants set to be hit by the tax.

A statement read: “Our staff have been able to discuss various options with our affected tenants, including the possibility of moving to smaller accommodation and how to claim the short-term discretionary housing payment that the Government has made available for some households affected by the changes.”

Meanwhile Festival Housing, which manages more than 9,000 properties in Worcestershire and Here-fordshire, said extra efforts are being made to help people.

Paula Jenner, from Festival, said a survey showed about 900 of their tenants would be affected.

She said: “We contacted 900 of our tenants to find out how much they knew about Welfare Reform changes overall and found varying levels of knowledge. We are aiming to help people understand how the bedroom tax will work and what that will mean in terms of the in-come they receive. Where benefits are reduced tenants need to consider how to meet the shortfall and we are providing as much tailor-made assistance as possible, including personal visits by our income management team.

“We have produced a welfare reform leaflet which is available on our website and was sent out with our tenant magazine to those people affected.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said certain one-off payments would be offered to help tenants in exceptional circumstances, in-cluding “people whose homes have had significant disability adaptations and those with long-term medical conditions that create difficulties in sharing a bedroom.”

The payments, from the Department for Work and Pensions, are designed to be temporary measures to help the most vulnerable adjust.