Example
Mr C applied to the council for a crisis grant. He applied as his normal wage of £1641 was reduced to £1341 because of an unexpected child support agency (CSA) payment of £300, and he had spent money on buying furnishings for his new tenancy. He therefore had no money for food or utilities until he was due to receive his next wage.
The council noted that Mr C had received three crisis grants in the previous 12 months which is the normal maximum that can be received in that time period. While the council do have discretion to award further grants in exceptional circumstances, they noted that Mr C had spent his wage on items that he had not been granted as part of a community care grant such as cutlery, etc. which they deemed were not essential. As a result, they did not deem that his circumstances were exceptional and refused his application. They upheld their decision at the first tier review stage.
Mr C applied to the council for an independent review of the council's decision. We took into account all of the relevant facts and circumstances of his situation. We noted that the council had not handled the low income issue which in s5.4 of the guidance listing the eligibility checks, comes before looking at whether an application is excluded based on previous application history. We took into account that a wage of £1341 would not be considered comparable to someone on an income related benefit. We did not assess that Mr C had any exceptional outgoings, as the CSA payment was an expense that he was responsible for paying. We also assessed that he still had a reasonable income even after this had been deducted. We noted that he was not in receipt of or did not have an underlying entitlement to housing benefit or tax credits, etc. As a result, we did not assess that he was in receipt of a low income (s7.13 to 7.18 of SWF guidance), and did not uphold his request for review.