Example
Mr C applied to the council, on behalf of his elderly parents, for £159.00 towards the cost of a repair to a shower. His parents owned their own home but their shower had stopped working and they were unable to afford the repair.
The council refused the application on the basis that they considered the application did not pass eligibility. They assessed that exclusions 10 and 21 from Annex A applied. Exclusion 21 directs decision makers to refuse applications for major repairs to private property and lists some examples, including complete rewiring, replacement bathrooms and kitchens, roof works and double glazing replacement. They upheld their decision following Mr C’s first tier review request.
We did not consider that a repair to a domestic shower could reasonably be considered major and substantial repairs to a private property. At first tier review the council assessed that exclusion 10 also applied. Exclusion 10 notes that any item which is fulfils a medical function and assists in on-going treatment, should be excluded. We acknowledged that the applicant’s bathroom had been adapted for the purposes of proving a safer bathing experience, but the shower had not been adapted. We deemed that the need to shower daily was a requirement for everyone regardless of health conditions and so did not constitute a medical item. We assessed that s8.39 of the guidance makes provision for the council to award money towards the repair of an item or appliance, and so we assessed that the application should not be excluded. We took into account the specific facts of the case, including that the applicant told us his parents were frail and suffered from ill health, and so they were both under daily strain with the challenges of looking after his mother. He noted he had given up work to be a carer for his mother. We considered that the application met the qualifying criteria 2 - around applicants who are at risk of care (s8.8 -8.12 of the SWF guidance). We deemed that it was a high priority that an award was made to improve the health and wellbeing of the family and prevent an admission to care. We upheld the review request on the basis that the council’s decision wasn’t supported by the guidance and instructed them to make an award to cover the cost of repair.