No room at home for poorest students

Student accommodation is for 39 weeks a year. For 13 weeks students usually go home. The poorest students are likely to have parents claiming housing benefit, and often will be the first generation in their family to go to university. What happens now with the bedroom tax (Comment, 19 February)? Student loans are calculated on accommodation costs being for term-time only. Do parents have to choose between being financially penalised for keeping their child's bedroom available for the holidays or moving to a smaller place and making their child homeless for the holidays, unable to claim housing benefit for themselves as they are under 24? I know a lone parent with a disabled son due to go to university in September. Because of his disability he has to come home more often than most students. She doesn't know what to do. This type of dilemma will be replicated across the UK hitting the most vulnerable students – another factor making university less accessible for the poorest.
Fiona Kirton
Shepton Mallet, Somerset