A FUND to help those affected by the “bedroom tax” is too complicated and will put off people from applying, according to one mother.

Nichola Murphy, aged 35, says the forms for the Discretionary Housing Payment are too detailed and stopped her from continuing with the application.

Bury Council has been granted a budget of £324,003 to cover applications from exempt social housing tenants, people who are disabled, fosterers or parents of armed forces personnel.

Miss Murphy, of Polefield Circle, Prestwich, has been declared unfit to work and is medically retired, after suffering from diabetes and osteoporosis, and using a wheelchair after suffering several falls, recently breaking her wrist.

She said: “It asks for everything. It might as well as ask me when I last coloured my hair.

You only get it for a few months, and I just thought what is the point?”

Cllr Rishi Shori, cabinet member for adult care, health and housing, later admitted there was an issue and said he would arrange for help to be offered to Miss Murphy in completing the documents.

He said: “We don’t want a situation where people who are entitled to the fund are not applying. We want to ensure people get the help that they need.”

Cllr Shori has also responded to criticism of the council for failing to implement a “no evictions” policy for residents affected by the “bedroom tax”.

He said protest group Bury Against the Bedroom Tax was “exceptionally naive” in calling for the move.

There are fears that those who cannot keep up with thepayments of the tax officially, known as the under occupancy charge, will be forced out of their homes.

The group had previously cited the example of Brighton Council which claimed it as committed to no evictions. But Cllr Shori said any such policy would be illegal.

After Adam Rose, from the protest group, said he was unhappy that the council did not commit to a no evictions policy, Cllr Shori said: “I am disappointed with his comments because we have gone further than a lot of councils. We are engaging with groups who are affected by the bedroom tax.

“I think they are being exceptionally naive and they are totally misrepresenting the situation. They say Brighton Council has a no eviction policy but, like us, they have said evictions will only happen as a last resort.

“We are trying to help people who are affected, and it shouldn’t be the local council they are complaining to but central government and the Department for Work and Pensions who have introduced this policy.”

■ A protest against the ‘bedroom tax’ will be held at a housing conference in Manchester today. Greater Manchester Against the Bedroom Tax will use the visit of minister for welfare reform, Lord Freud, to Manchester Central to campaign against the charge. The group says there are 13,265 social housing tenants affected in Greater Manchester alone, and that people being evicted is a possibility.