Summary: Mr B complained that the Council delayed in processing his medical assessment for his housing application. We found fault in the actions of the Council. It has agreed to apologise to Mr B, pay him £400 and review its procedures for the future.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained that the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (the Council) in respect of his housing situation:
1. failed to award him medical priority in May 2020 or backdate his current medical priority to May 2020;
2. discriminated against him on the basis of his disability in July 2020;
3. delayed in acknowledging and completing his medical assessment submitted on 15 September 2022;
4. failed to backdate his medical priority to the date of the application on 15 September 2022;
5. failed to consider whether he is currently homeless; and
6. delayed in dealing with his stage two complaint.
2. Mr B has experienced significant distress and hardship due to his housing situation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’  and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have not investigated parts a) and b) of the complaint because the events happened, and Mr B was aware of them, more than 12 months before he complained to us and I consider it was reasonable for him to have complained to us at an earlier point.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. Mr B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

The Council’s allocations policy

9. The Council has three bands of priority on the housing register. Band 1 and Band 2 are split into two groups, Group A and Group B. Band 1 Group B includes applicants who have a priority medical award and Group A includes those who have a recommendation for ground floor accommodation on disability or medical grounds. Band 2 includes homeless applicants in priority need.

What happened

10. Mr B has an incurable neurological condition along with chronic fatigue, anxiety and depression and mobility issues. He has been homeless for some time and staying with friends. Mr B had made an application to the Council for housing in 2021 but the Council had refused to let him join the housing register. He complained to us and in August 2022 we said the Council should accept an application from him.
11. Mr B then completed a medical assessment form on 15 September 2022. Mr B complained at the end of October 2022 about the delay in processing his application along with concerns about actions the Council took in 2022 regarding his homeless application. The Council replied in November 2022 saying that his application was in Band 2 Group A but he did not have medical priority as the Council was waiting for an occupational therapy assessment. Mr B escalated his complaint to stage two
12. On 21 December 2022 a hospital occupational therapist (OT) assessed him during his rehabilitation sessions. They sent the assessment to the Council requesting Band 1 Group B medical priority due to Mr B having a severe long term limiting illness with a permanent and substantial disability. The OT said Mr B’s ability to live independently in the community was at risk without suitable accommodation, they had critical concerns about his safety due to his current environment being unsustainable and it was not possible to adapt it to his needs.
13. The OT said he required single level accommodation, with no stairs, ideally wheelchair accessible and with a wet room or the possibility to create one.
14. In February 2023 Mr B complained to us about the lack of response to his complaint and the failure to process his medical assessment. We referred the complaint back to the Council asking it to complete consideration of the complaint through its complaints procedure
15. On 13 March 2023 the Council sent its stage two response to Mr B regarding the events in 2020. It refused to backdate any medical priority awarded to May 2020 as it said it was not a relevant consideration at that time.
16. On 23 April 2023 the Council awarded medical priority from 1 November 2022 and Mr B complained again to us.
17. In response to my enquiries the Council confirmed it had awarded Band 1, Group A medical priority backdated to 15 September 2022 (the date of the medical assessment application). It said the delay was due to a shortage of OTs and a backlog of applications. The Council said that Mr B had not missed out on bidding for any suitable properties during the period of delay.
18. On 10 July 2023 Mr B moved to a ground floor council property.

Analysis

19. The Council delayed in carrying out Mr B’s medical assessment to determine his priority on the housing register. He applied on 15 September 2022, and I consider the Council should have processed the application within one month. It failed to determine the medical assessment until April 2023 and only backdated the priority to September 2022 in July 2023, a total delay of nine months. This was fault which caused Mr B distress and frustration.
20. I appreciate some of the delay was due to a shortage of OTs which is outside the Council’s control, but we still consider this to be service failure and fault. I also note the Council did not acknowledge Mr B’s medical assessment application for nearly two months, delayed in responding to his stage two complaint and failed to prioritise his case even once the hospital OT highlighted the risks to his health and wellbeing.
21. There is an argument that Mr B should have been treated as homeless given that it was possibly unreasonable for him to continue to occupy his accommodation. However, I do not consider this route would have resulted in suitable accommodation for him any quicker.
22. I accept he may not have missed out on any suitable offers of accommodation during this period, but he was caused significant frustration and distress.

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Agreed action

23. In recognition of the injustice caused to Mr B, I recommended the Council, within once month of the date of my final decision:
• apologises to Mr B and pays him £400; and
• reviews its medical assessment procedure to identify where improvements could be made to speed up the processing of applications.
24. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

25. I consider this is a proportionate way of putting right the injustice caused to Mr B and I have completed my investigation on this basis.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman