The 'bedroom tax' is one of the most high-profile and contentious of the Coalition Government's welfare reform policies; becoming a symbol of austerity measures seen by many as draconian and punitive. Can the tax therefore be dismissed as a government blunder, failing to elicit the desired behavioural responses, primarily due to a lack of alternative social accommodation? Or does it signify a new set of propositions about social housing, in which temporary and transient housing need has become the primary organising principle? In this topical Short from Policy Press the authors use the 'bedroom tax' as a rich case study through which to explore a range of wider debates including understandings of the 'social' in social housing, the politics and policy of poverty, and social security law. It will be a valuable reference for practitioners and policy-makers, lawyers and academics as well as anyone interested in high profile contemporary policy.