Example
Miss C applied to the council for a community care grant for a number of items for her new home. She had recently accepted a tenancy after leaving her parent’s home and had nothing to furnish her flat.
The council refused the application as they assessed she did not meet any of the qualifying criteria. They upheld their decision following a review of the decision requested by Miss C's mother.
Miss C then asked the SPSO to review the council's decision. We took into account the specific facts of the case including that Miss C's family were unable to offer her any support in setting up her new home. However, we did not assess that Miss C met any of the qualifying criteria for an award (from 8.5 to 8.19 in the SWF guidance). She had not recently left care, nor was she at risk of needing care. She did not qualify under the homeless criteria as we did not consider she satisfied the additional vulnerability and tenancy support conditions. We also found no evidence that she met the criteria as a person under exceptional pressure as the primary pressure she was under was that of being on a low income. Finally she was not supporting someone who had been recently released from prison. We did not change the council’s decision, although provided feedback that we disagreed that the application met the qualifying criteria and that the letters did not contain enough information to explain the decision.