A court challenge to the government's bedroom tax has failed today.
The bedroom tax takes an average of £14 from the housing benefit of people with a spare bedroom with the aim of getting people to move to properties of the right size, but it has been criticised for not taking into account the lack of smaller flats available in most areas and for not understanding the care needs of disabled people.
Those who have carers who stay overnight still lose money if the arrangement is not full-time.
Ten families with disabled members took the government to the high court suggesting that the tax breached their human rights.
They believed that the policy discriminated against disabled people unfairly as around two-thirds of the 660,000 households that have lost money since the April introduction of the tax included disabled members.
The failure of the case came as a "bitter disappointment" to the families, according to Richard Stein, of law firm Leigh Day which is representing two of them, but he added "they are not defeated".
"We, along with the other lawyers acting on behalf of adults with disabilities, will appeal this judgment and we remain confident that the discrimination which was recognised by the court and which has been perpetrated against our clients by this legislation is not justified and is unlawful."
The case also hinged on a belief that the money set aside to help families affected by the tax was not adequate; £150 million originaly set aside has been increased by £35 million, but ony £25 million is earmarked specifically for disabled people.
Local councils have the responsibility to spend this money, but Mr Stein believed this would not help: "The government's attempts to pass the buck to local authorities to deal with the unfairness and discrimination of the bedroom tax using discretionary housing payments is not acceptable.
"The amount of money provided by the government for these payments is nowhere near adequate to prevent large numbers of disabled people losing their homes."
The chief executive of housing charity Shelter, Campbell Robb, said: "This ruling is devastating news for disabled adults and families with disabled or vulnerable children, who'll be put at real risk of homelessness for having a bedroom they just can't do without.
"Shelter gave extensive evidence to the court based on our experience of how families like these are being affected, which showed that the government's current provision to support people in exceptional cases is inadequate.
"As a result of today's ruling, we're really concerned that these families will now face a real struggle to meet their rent and may end up losing their home."
A DWP spokesperson said:
"We are pleased to learn that the court has found in our favour and agreed that we have fulfilled our equality duties to disabled people.
"Reform of housing benefit in the social sector is essential, so the taxpayer does not pay for people’s extra bedrooms. But we have ensured extra discretionary housing support is in place to help those who need it and today we have announced a further £35m of funding to councils to aid residents."