Council to pay vulnerable man £100,000 after error led to funding cut

A local authority has agreed to pay out more than £100,000 after its maladministration meant a man with severe learning difficulties was deprived of funding for several years.

The move follows a report from the Local Government Ombudsman, who found that Bradford Council gave wrong information to the Independent Living Fund.

Until 2001, the 42-year-old man (Mr A) lived with his family. The authority told the ILF that he would be going into residential care, when in fact he went into supported housing.

Mr A would have continued to receive £750 per month from the Fund if the mistake had not been made.

The error meant that Mr A could not take part in many social activities he had previously enjoyed, such as swimming, evening discos and trips to the seaside.

The Ombudsman's investigation also found that:

• At the same time, Bradford was paying itself housing benefit for Mr A – but this cannot be done for residential care accommodation.
• The man’s brother asked Bradford to give his brother a tenancy agreement but it did not.
• When the council knew that the ILF could reinstate payments to Mr A if he had a tenancy agreement or a written licence to occupy his supported housing, it failed to give him either.
• Bradford could not produce any evidence that it tried to prove to the ILF that Mr A was living independently.

In 2006 Bradford transferred its supported housing to a registered social landlord. The new landlord gave Mr A an assured shorthold tenancy and in 2008 the ILF began to pay him again.

However, the Fund’s rules had changed so Mr A received less than he got before moving in 2001.

Bradford finally accepted the complaint in 2008.

The council has now agreed to pay more than £100,000, representing the total amount of ILF payments lost.

It will continue to pay the difference between what he would have been entitled to and what he can now get. This amounts to £142 per week.

The council will also pay the brother £5,000 in recognition of the “extraordinary lengths he had to go to in pursuing justice” for Mr A.

The brother sought to get answers from the council for seven years as to why Mr A had lost his funding.

The LGO, Anne Seex, has also called on Bradford to apologise to the brothers.