Example
C requested an independent review of the council's decision on their crisis grant application. C applied for money for travel and food after mis-budgeting their income.
The council declined the application on the basis that C had already received three awards in the last 12-month period which is the usual maximum allowed. They did not identify any exceptional circumstances that would allow for an additional award to be made.
We reviewed the council's file and spoke with C. We noted that travelling expenses are normally excluded, with the exception of one-off expenses relating directly to the qualifying criteria. In this case, we deemed that the assistance requested was not one-off or directly relating to the qualifying criteria, so could not be provided by the fund. We also agreed with the council that the application for food was excluded due to C's application history. We did not change the council's decision, but we provided them with feedback on their decision letters and reminded them to check for excluded items (such as travel).