Summary: Miss B complains the Council failed to deal properly with her application for rehousing. The Ombudsman finds there was some fault by the Council in its handling of her housing application. Miss B was put to some time and trouble as a result. That was an injustice, for a which remedy has been agreed.

The complaint

2. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss B, complains the Council failed to deal properly with her application for rehousing.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered all the information provided by Miss B about her complaint. I made written enquiries of the Council and took account of all the information and evidence it provided in response.
6. I provided Miss B and the Council with a draft of this decision and took account of all comments received in response.

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What I found

Background

7. Miss B has been on the Council’s register for housing since April 2014. At the time Miss B made her complaint she and her partner and three children (a son aged 13 and two daughters aged seven and five) were living in a two-bedroom flat. Miss B was expecting a fourth child and now has another daughter.

The Council’s housing allocations policy

8. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises applicants, and its procedures for allocating housing. All allocations must be made in strict accordance with the published scheme.
9. An allocations scheme must give reasonable preference to applicants in certain categories, including people in overcrowded housing, and people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds.
10. The Council's allocations policy places applicants in four priority bands numbered one to four. In brief the bands and what they include are as follows:

• Band 1: Statutorily overcrowded (not where this has been caused by a deliberate act)
• Band 2: Includes applicants with severe medical, welfare award or disability where accommodation is unsuitable; or who have priority on welfare grounds and need to move urgently due to risk to health; applicants lacking an essential facility such as kitchen, bathroom etc; applicants where there is serious threat to the well-being of a child (emergency move needed confirmed by social services);
• Band 3: Includes overcrowded but not statutorily overcrowded households; and applicants with moderate medical priority where there is a clear objective need for a move and housing conditions are directly contributing to causing serious ill health; and
• Band 4: homeless applicants where no statutory duty is owed; and all other applicants.

11. Within each band the Council can give additional priority to applications through its priority star scheme. Relevant to this complaint, stars may be awarded to working households and to those doing voluntary work, provided certain criteria are met and acceptable proof to support such awards is provided by the applicant.

Miss B’s banding

12. Miss B’s application has been correctly placed in Band 3. Her home is deemed to be overcrowded, because it is recognised that the family requires three bedrooms. But the home is not overcrowded by law (statutorily overcrowded), for which the test is higher.

Miss B requests priority stars

13. On 12 February 2018 Miss B contacted the Council to report a change of circumstances as she and her partner had got married. She also told the Council she wanted to apply for a working star and a voluntary work star.
14. The Council wrote back to Miss B on 26 February ask her to send in the evidence required for adding her husband the application and for the award of a working star. It advised that she should submit her marriage certificate or deed poll for change of name, plus identification and two proofs of address for partner to add him to the application. For the working star, she was asked to send in a recent pay slip, a letter from the employer showing current address, the contract of employment, P60 and a bank statement showing wages. The Council’s letter advised that the requested information should be provided within 14 days. The Council did not tell her at this time what she needed to send in to get a voluntary contribution star. That was fault.

What happened next

15. Miss B’s application was suspended between 26 February and 29 July 2018, ostensibly while the required information to update her application was awaited. However, between these dates Miss B did submit some information.
16. On 12 March she submitted:

• her partner’s passport and driving licence and a copy of their marriage certificate showing herself and her partner at the same address. She added a note explaining she had only one proof of address for her husband at this time as takes time to change address on official documents;
• a self-assessment tax statement for 2016/17 and a self-assessment tax calculation dated 23 February 2018 for her partner; and
• an undated letter from the church where she does her voluntary work, which says she has been working as a volunteer since September 2015. It set out her role and duties but not full details of hours etc.

17. The Council has noted these documents were filed and sent to the incorrect team. That was fault.
18. On 12 April Miss B contacted the Council to find out what was happening with her application. It then wrote to her and said she still needed to submit “ID and 2 different proofs of address for partner; recent payslip; letter from employer showing name and current address; contract of employment; P60; bank statement showing wages”. There was no reference to what was outstanding for the voluntary contribution star: that was fault.

The working star

19. On 13 September 2018 the Council wrote to Miss B again to say that it still needed some verification for the working star. In the copy of the letter provided to me, the requested documents were set out as “Voluntary National Insurance contributions; pay and tax records; registering for self-assessment employment tax and national”. That was not a clear list of what documentation was needed. That was fault.
20. The Council’s internal file note dated 2 March 2019 states: “Work star information not provided in full, officer to send another reminder letter”, and the following day the records list the information still awaited to assess the work star self-employment eligibility: tax return 2017/18; statement of account from certified accountant confirming rates charged; relevant invoices covering the last nine month period voluntary NI contributions; bank statement detailing income going into account for 9 month period, self-employment registration”.
21. On 4 March 2019 the Council wrote again to say that it still needed some verification for the working star. In this letter it set out what was needed as follows: “‘Proof of income – confirmation from DSS showing name and address, recent Pay-slip, bank statement showing wages, voluntary National Insurance contributions, pay and tax records, recent self-assessment tax return’.
22. On 19 March 2019 Miss B submitted a self-assessment tax statement for 2018.
23. The Council has confirmed to the Ombudsman that to progress an application for a working star it now requires bank statements from the last nine months showing income from employment.

The voluntary contribution star

24. The information Miss B had provided on 12 March 2018 in connection with her voluntary work was not adequate. But the Council did not write to her again about this until 6 December 2018. It says this was due to delays in the service and officer error. That was fault.
25. On 15 January 2019 the Council received further evidence from Miss B, confirming four and a half hours per week voluntary work, starting nine years previously. The voluntary contribution star was added to her application on 19 January 2019.

The addition of Miss B’s partner and change of name

26. The information Miss B had provided on 12 March 2018 in connection with this change of circumstances was not adequate. This was because the Council required two proofs of address from a list of documents specified as appropriate verification, and it had only received the driving licence. A marriage certificate showing both people at the same address is not an accepted proof of address.
27. On 29 June 2018 Miss B submitted a council tax bill from May 2018 showing both her name and her partner’s name, plus the deed poll document showing Miss B’s change of name. The Council then told her it could not find those documents and asked her to re-submit them and to telephone to confirm when she had done so. That was fault.
28. The target time frame for updating applications with such changes of circumstances is 28 days. In this case the Council updated Miss B’s application on 29 July, just outside that timescale, and reinstated her application for bidding from that date.

Analysis

29. The evidence shows there were several faults in the Council’s handling of this matter, as set out above.
30. In terms of the impact of these faults on Miss B, she was put to some unnecessary time and trouble in chasing the Council for progress and in pursuing a complaint about what had happened.
31. The delay by the Council in advising Miss B that it needed more information to award the voluntary contributions star meant that she was not awarded this until January 2019. If the delay had not occurred on balance it is likely she would have submitted the required information and been awarded the star by mid-April 2018. I have therefore considered whether Miss B could have successfully secured any properties on which she placed bids in the relevant period. Between March 2018 and January 2019 Miss B bid on three three-bedroom properties: the evidence shows all of these were allocated to applicants with one priority star, but all were in Band 1 under the allocations scheme. As Miss B is in Band 3, she would not have been offered these homes even if the priority star had been in place.
32. There was further fault by the Council in its complaint handling, as at the end of its complaints procedure it wrongly signposted Miss B to the Housing Ombudsman Service instead of to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Agreed action

33. In recognition of the time and trouble caused to Miss B by the faults identified in this case, I recommended that within four weeks of the date of the decision on this complaint, the Council issues her with a formal written apology and pays her £150.
34. In addition, I recommended that within three months of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council:

• Reminds staff of the importance of clear letters requesting verification to support changes to housing applications, so that there can be no doubt about what is required in terms of evidence, including for example if several pieces of evidence from a given list are needed; and
• ensures staff in the complaints team are reminded of the importance of signposting complainants appropriately to the relevant ombudsman services.

35. The Council has agreed to my recommendations.

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Final decision

36. I have completed my investigation on the basis set out above.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman