Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the complainant’s priority on the housing register because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council placed her in the wrong band on the housing register and will not allow her to apply for affordable rent properties. Ms X wants the Council to put her in a higher band and let her apply for affordable homes.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and information from the Council. This includes medical evidence, the banding reviews and the complaint response. I considered comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Housing allocation policy

4. The Council places people in bands on the housing register to help it determine priority for housing. Band C is for people who have a high housing need. People can qualify for band C if they have a high medical need and their current home is not appropriate.

What happened

5. Ms X is in band C on the housing register. The Council awarded medical priority because she has a child with health needs and because Ms X struggles to manage her child on the stairs. The Council recommended that Ms X needs a level access home where there is a safe play area for her child.
6. The Council nominated Ms X for an affordable rent home. Ms X declined the offer in April 2020 because she thought it would be too expensive. The Council noted that Ms X would prefer homes with a social rent which are cheaper. In June Ms X contacted the Council to say she could afford the property. Unfortunately, by then, the property had been offered to someone else. In January 2021 the Council confirmed to Ms X she can bid for affordable rent homes. There are no restrictions on Ms X’s bidding.
7. Ms X is separated from her husband but they still share a house. Ms X finds this very difficult and says it has a negative impact on her and her child. Ms X also says the Council lost financial information that she submitted. The Council told Ms X it had not lost any financial information; instead, Ms X had not filled in the form which asks for information about employment and finances.

Assessment

8. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. I have considered the allocations policy and the Council’s decision to place Ms X is band C is consistent with her circumstances. The Council has recognised that her current accommodation is unsuitable and that she needs to move somewhere with no stairs and where her child will have a safe play area.
9. Ms X says she cannot bid for affordable homes. However, the Council nominated her for an affordable home last year and has recently confirmed there are no restrictions on her bidding. Ms X says she did not know that the Council had recorded that she did not want an affordable rent home. However, this had no impact because, since then, Ms X has applied for five affordable homes but did not come higher than tenth in the shortlisting. This means that, regardless of what was recorded, the Council could not have offered any of these homes to her because she was not placed high enough in the shortlisting.
10. Ms X continues to assert the Council lost her financial information. The Council has explained that Ms X had a former housing application held on a different computer system. The Council introduced a new system in 2018 which could not store the financial information from the old system. Ms X reactivated her application in 2019 and did not fill in the section which asked about employment and finances. There is no evidence the Council has lost any of the financial information but rather that Ms X did not provide up to date information in 2019. Even if the Council still had access to the historic information this would not affect the current banding.
11. Ms X says the Council did not consider her child’s Education and Health Care Plan. But, the reviews the Council have carried out show this information was considered.

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Final decision

12. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman