Example
C applied for a crisis grant for food and utilities. They were recently granted refugee status but support from the home office had stopped. This left them with no funds for living expenses until they could apply for benefits.
The council asked C for their national insurance (NI) number and details of their benefit claim. However, C had already advised that they did not have a NI number and had not made a benefit claim.
The council awarded two weeks of living costs to allow time for C to apply for benefits. Two weeks later C asked for additional support as they were having issues accessing their E-Visa so could not yet make an application for benefits. The council made a further award for two weeks expenses, bringing the total award to £120.00.
C then asked the SPSO to review the council's decision to decline further support.
We reviewed the council's file and spoke with C. We agreed that the award of 2 weeks expenses was reasonable as C was not aware of when they would receive their first benefit payment when they requested additional funds. However, we could not establish how the council reached their decision on the value of the award. We assessed that the householder rate should be used as C is currently in homeless accommodation. We instructed the council to pay the difference between what C should have received and what had already been awarded.
Recommendations
- Award an additional £97.28.
Feedback for the council
- The council requested information from C which we felt was not necessary as C had already provided details about why this information was not available.
- We were critical of the recording of the decision making process
- We noted the council's decision letter contained inaccurate and misleading information
- The council failed to record the details of the applicant's first tier review request
We have asked the council to provide us with confirmation that the award was made within one working day.