More than half of tenants affected by a housing benefit cut in England were in arrears five months after the changes were introduced, a report says.
Some 59% of tenants - more than 300,000 - were in arrears, analysis for the Department for Work and Pensions found.
But a DWP spokesman said around 50% of Housing Association tenants were in arrears before the changes.
He added that figures showed that widely predicted homelessness and mass migration had not materialised.
The government said its reforms were tackling "welfare dependency".
The changes to housing benefit in England, Scotland and Wales - dubbed the "bedroom tax" by critics but described by ministers as the removal of a "spare room subsidy" - were introduced in April last year.
Social housing tenants found to have one spare bedroom have had their housing benefit reduced by 14%. Those with two or more spare bedrooms have had reductions of 25%.
One in five people in arrears had paid nothing towards this.
Researchers found widespread concern that those who had paid had borrowed or made cuts to other essentials.
'Promising start'The analysis for the DWP found that while many tenants hit by the cut had wanted to move, they had been unable to do so owing to the lack of smaller properties.
End Quote David Orr National Housing FederationSurely now it is time for the government to admit they got it wrong"
While 19% of tenants had registered to downsize, 4.5% had managed to do so within the first six months of the policy.
A DWP spokeswoman said this figure was a "promising start".
But David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, which campaigns for affordable housing, said the government's policy remained "flawed".
He said: "Time and time again it has been shown that the bedroom tax is pushing people into rent arrears and people have been unable to downsize because of a lack of smaller properties.
"Now the figures from the DWP prove it is not working, surely now it is time for the government to admit they got it wrong and repeal this ill-thought policy."
Responding to the report, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: "This department is delivering some of the biggest welfare reforms in over 60 years, designed to return fairness to the system and we are on track to make the £6bn savings we had previously set out.
"At the same time we are helping to make sure our housing benefit reforms have a transformative effect on the lives of those who in the past were faced with a system which trapped people into cycles of workless and welfare dependency.
"The scaremongering by those opposed to our welfare reforms - in particular our housing benefit reforms - has been proven to be without substance, and we are already seeing the effects of people moving into work."
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