Council house tenants in Cornwall hit by the Government's welfare crackdown are being offered £1,000 sweeteners to move to smaller properties.
In April, the Government introduced the "under-occupancy penalty", which slashed housing benefit to social tenants that are judged to have a spare room.
Dubbed a "bedroom tax" by Labour, though the Government says it ends a "spare room subsidy", the cut will see affected families on average lose around £780 a year in the South West.
Labour has this week argued the clampdown is "cruel" as there are nowhere near enough smaller properties to move into – meaning hard-pressed families will be landed with an extra financial burden.
Cornwall Housing, which manages Cornwall Council's 10,500 council houses, is offering payments of £1,000 to encourage households to downsize, paid for by the local authority.
The payment has been scaled-back from £3,000 when the Tenants Incentive Scheme was launched last year.
Cornwall Housing's latest estimate suggests tenants in 949 households – or one-in-ten of its stock – boast at least one or more empty bedroom, meaning they have been hit by the benefit cut.
To date, 34 households have drawn down the £1,000 for downsizing and a further 12 are under way, pending completion of their moves. The budget for the Tenants Incentive Scheme, available to all under-occupying social tenants in Cornwall, is £128,000 this year.
The Cornwall Housing website explains the money is to "encourage and assist tenants under-occupying family accommodation to move to non-family or older person's accommodation, or to downsize in family accommodation by at least one bedroom".
But there is a clear shortage of appropriate housing. Out of 949 Cornwall Housing properties hit by the "bedroom" tax, 592 would require a one-bedroom property if they were to no longer have a spare room. However, just 15 one-bed social rent properties are currently being advertised in Cornwall. The figure underlines the housing crisis in the Westcountry fuelled by shortages, spiralling prices and mismatched tenancies.
A Cornwall Council spokesman said: "We are very aware of the pressure which the welfare reform changes are putting on those of our tenants who are affected.
"We have, therefore, had a team of welfare reform advisors in place over the last year that have been making contact with all those who are affected, to discuss their needs and to offer them help either with budgeting skills, a move to a smaller property, or advice on other ways to mitigate the impacts."