Example
C asked us to review the council's decision to refuse their application for a self-isolation support grant. C told the council that they had been told by the Test and Protect service to isolate.
C provided the council with all of the required eligibility documents, however C’s details did not appear on the daily lists sent to the council, detailing people who had been told to self-isolate. The council phoned the service to verify this but as the applicant had not consented to share their data, they were not able to confirm or deny the information. The council were therefore unable to make a positive assessment. C confirmed that they had been in contact with the service to change their consent but this had not yet filtered through to the council. The council assessed that the application was not eligible.
We reviewed the council's file and spoke to C for further information. We also contacted Test and Protect and were able to verify that C appeared on their database and that the reference number was valid. On this basis, we changed the council's decision and recorded this under 'new information'. We considered that the council made reasonable attempts to verify the information themselves, and should not be criticised for the issues associated with Test and Protect.