Example
Ms C applied for a crisis grant having lost a purse containing a month’s Universal Credit while shopping. The applicant would not receive a substantial benefits payment again for a number of weeks.
The council refused the application on the basis of the applicant having not provided bank statements to support the loss having occurred as described. Their first tier review decision pointed to the applicant’s history of near identical applications over the previous three years.
We assessed that although application history beyond 12 months should not always form part of the decision making process, it was relevant in this case. We considered that the previous applications had strong similarities to the current one, even down to small details. Additionally there were a number of inconsistencies, including in the amount stated as having been withdrawn from an ATM on a single day. Overall this created doubts that the information provided was true. We therefore assessed that it was reasonable to request additional supporting bank evidence. Although the applicant provided reasons why she could not obtain this we considered that overall, without this evidence there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the applicant was in crisis, or that it had occurred as described (s4.20 of SWF Guidance). We did not change the council’s decision but provided some feedback relating to their written communication.