Example
Mr C applied to the council for a crisis grant. His application included a request for clothing and bedding.
The council handled the crisis elements of the application but did not acknowledge the community care aspects. As part of an independent review of the decision on his crisis grant we instructed the council to assess the community care grant elements of his application. The council refused the application for clothing and bedding on the basis that they considered that they were excluded items under the guidance. They upheld their decision at first tier review.
Mr C asked the SPSO to review the council's decision. We took into account the specific facts of the case. Mr C told us that due to an accident at work he had broken his foot and had been unable to go to the gym and had put on a stone in weight over the course of year. He also explained that the bedding on all the beds was old and in a poor condition. We noted that the guidance (Annex A point 15) states that items which are on-going features of an applicant's expenditure should be excluded. We considered that although Mr C had put on weight, it had been over such a period of time that it would have been reasonable for him to have managed to budget to replace the clothing he needed to. We also assessed that as no sudden or major disaster had affected his clothing or bedding, and that it would continue to need to be replaced in the future, that it fell under the criteria of an on-going feature of expenditure and there for was excluded. We did not uphold the review request.