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Case ref:201103170
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Date:August 2012
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Body:Perth and Kinross Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Upheld, action taken by body to remedy, recommendations
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Subject:finance - housing benefit and council tax benefit
Summary
Mr C complained that there had been unnecessary delays on the part of the council in passing his housing benefit appeal to the tribunal service. In addition, he was unhappy that the council's welfare rights team withdrew their representation just before the tribunal hearing, and without discussing the matter with him.
We upheld Mr C's complaints. Our investigation found evidence of administrative delays on the council's part in passing the required information to the tribunal service. We also found that the council had explained why they had not contacted Mr C before the welfare rights team decided to withdraw their support. However, we took the view that the decision to withdraw support could have been taken much earlier, with more notice given to Mr C. As the council also explained that they have taken action to revise their procedures, we made no recommendation about this.
Recommendations
We recommended that the council:
- apologise for the failings identified in the handling of this matter.