Bedroom tax has not only made it into the Oxford Dictionary this year but was a runner-up for the prestigious word of the year competition, according to Inside Housing

Despite the government refuting that it is the correct term, the term is the preferred choice of the public compared to the different government options. David Cameron calls it the spare room subsidy, Lord Freud has called it the under-occupancy penalty and the official Department for Work and Pensions term is social housing size criteria.

The winner of the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 was ‘selfie’ and the other runner-ups were binge-watch, bitcoin, olinguito, schmeat, showrooming and twerk.

The definition of bedroom tax is: noun, informal (in the UK) a reduction in the amount of housing benefit paid to a claimant if the property they are renting is judged to have more bedrooms than is necessary for the number of the people in the household, according to criteria set down by the government.

The last political terms to win the competition were 2011’s squeezed middle, 2010’s big society and 2008’s credit crunch.