Example
Mr C asked for an independent review of the council’s decision. He had applied for a crisis grant as he spent his Universal Credit payment taking his cat to the vet and had no money until his next payment of benefit.
The council had awarded Mr C a crisis grant less than two weeks previously under the same circumstances, however he said the award had been insufficient to meet his needs. When he contacted the council to advise them of this, they directed him to make a new application.
When we spoke with Mr C, we established that there had not been a relevant change of circumstances in between his previous and current application as the reason for the crisis remained the same. On this basis, while the applicant was entitled to make a new application, this was unlikely to be successful. We deemed that a more appropriate route would be to review the amount awarded under the previous grant. We provided this feedback to the council.