Last year, when George Osborne swiftly laid out his benefit cuts on the table, he threw a small bone to disabled people living alone who require occasional overnight help from carers. He passed an exemption that meant from April this year, these people could receive the two-bedroom rate of housing benefit to pay for a room to be used by carers as required. For those who would find this extra allowance useful, it seemed like a small reprieve among the announcements of slashes to housing benefit; maybe those who need the most help and care wouldn’t do so bad after all. Osborne and Grant Shapps, the minister for housing, also said that the worst off and most afflicted would be looked after, and be free of the clampdown on housing benefit. Before the election, David Cameron promised to “protect the most vulnerable” – an assurance he has broken.