A leaflet produced by Ealing Council, London has been slammed for noting that families becoming foster carers would be able to avoid so-called “bedroom tax” by undertaking this hugely important role for the community.

The flyer was brought to the attention of deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, when someone called into his weekly “Call Clegg” phone-in on LBC to flag the comments. This is Local London revealed that the leaflet said how from April 1st, families that rent a council or housing association house could have their benefits reduced, should they have one or more spare bedrooms.

Ealing Council’s leaflet drew attention to this, and was roundly criticised for its apparent trivialisation of foster care as a means to improve one’s life on much more selfish terms.

Speaking to the capital’s radio listeners, Mr Clegg said: “It is not right for Ealing to take an exemption that we announced a couple of weeks ago to say foster families will not be covered by this and then to use this to go round locally saying ‘why don’t you turn yourselves into a foster family?’. I am not happy at all with councils encouraging people to change the way they are as families just to avoid that £14 a week.”

Cllr Nigel Bakhai, a Liberal Democrat, said: “I think it’s uncaring and insensitive for the council to imply foster parents are only taking in a child for financial motivations. The focus should be on the children in need who need a stable and loving home and not on any sort of monetary gain.”