Summary

Mrs X complains the Council has paid her an incorrect allowance as Special Guardian for her two granddaughters. Her representative Mrs Y says the Council has been paying the same incorrect allowance to 171 other Special Guardians.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault  causing injustice, 

Recommendations

To remedy injustice caused the Council has agreed to:

• implement the new policy for Special Guardianship allowances;
• identify all existing Special Guardians that might be affected by the change and write to them to explain the new policy;
• calculate and backdates from November 2013, all Special Guardianship allowance payments for which Mrs X is eligible;
• writes to Mrs X to apologise for its delay implementing the new policy and pays her and Mrs Y £200 each to remedy the further time and trouble they have experienced resolving this complaint  during the past 12 months;
• identify all other Special Guardians affected by this fault since November 2013; and
• make backdated payments to those Special Guardians, calculated using the correct new policy.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's reponse: 21 September 2018.

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