Overview:

Key to names used

• Miss B The complainant
• C Her grandchild

Summary

Miss B complained that the Council had wrongly deducted child benefit from her Special Guardianship Allowance (SGA) since January 2022, failed to provide a copy of her grandchild’s (C) support plan and failed to share information with MissB. She also complained the Council had delayed significantly investigating her complaint through the statutory complaints process, taking just over a year to complete stage two of the process. These issues caused Miss B significant distress, frustration and financial hardship.

Finding

Fault found causing injustice and recommendations made.

Recommendations

The Council must consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take. The Council should consider the report at its full Council, Cabinet or other appropriately delegated committee of elected members and we will require evidence of this. (Local Government Act 1974, section 31(2), as amended)

To recognise the injustice caused to Miss B, we recommend that within three months of the date of this report, the Council:

• apologises to Miss B;

• recalculates her SGA in accordance with the government guidance and pays her a sum equivalent to the child benefit deductions made since January 2022;

• pays her £300 for the delay to the complaints process; and

• pays her £300 for the lack of information and support following the Special Guardianship Order.

For the 170 guardians receiving means-tested benefits, we recommend that within three months of the date of this report, the Council recalculates their SGA in accordance with the government guidance and pays them a sum equivalent to any child benefit deductions from the date of this report.

For the 125 carers about whom the Council holds no information, we recommend that within three months of the date of this report, the Council invites them to provide information to enable it to review their financial circumstances and where appropriate, recalculates their SGA in accordance with the government guidance and backdates the SGA without deductions from the date of this report.

We also recommend that the Council within three months of the date of this report reviews the operation of its complaints service in respect of stage two investigations under the children’s complaints process to ensure that statutory timescales are being met. We recommend a review is repeated on a quarterly basis for one year. If it identifies shortcomings the matter should be put before a suitable committee of elected members to consider potential solutions.

The Council has accepted the recommendations and should provide us with evidence it has complied with them.

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