Example
Ms C applied to the council for a community care grant. She applied for a living room carpet, two bedroom carpets and bathroom lino. She advised she was moving to a new tenancy after experiencing anti-social behaviour from a neighbour.
The council contacted Ms C to gather further information about her circumstances, however this was over the 15 working day timescale in which they should issue a decision. During this call Ms C explained she had borrowed money and had the carpets fitted, she had to repay £500.00 to a family member for the cost of the carpets. The council refused Ms C application on the basis that she had met the need herself. Ms C submitted a review request which provided further details about her circumstances for moving and why she had chosen to borrow money to buy the carpets. Ms C advised she was unable to move in unless she had carpets as her baby daughter is crawling and she was concerned for her safety. The council considered the review request but did not change their decision, they assessed that they could not provide carpets or repay the amount paid as this was excluded as a debt and is not something the SWF can assist with.
Ms C applied to the SPSO for an independent review of the council's decision. We took into account all the relevant facts and circumstances, including that Ms C was a single parent and experienced upheaval in her personal life. We assessed Ms C was eligible for a grant and met the qualifying criteria, 'family under exceptional pressure', however at priority we assessed that we could not change the council's decision. We noted that Ms C had been advised when submitting her application that the timescale was 15 working days (section 8.42 of the guidance), despite this Ms C had carpets installed approximately 5 days later. Whilst we understood Ms C was under pressure to get carpeting for her new tenancy we did not think this was reasonable. We therefore agreed with the council's assessment and did not change their decision. We provided feedback to the council as they had not issued their original decision within the 15 working day period as per section 8.42 of the guidance and no explanation was provided to the applicant regarding this.