Summary: Ms B complained about delay by the Council in awarding her keyworker priority status on the housing register. We found fault with the Council’s actions which meant Ms B missed out on bidding for more suitable properties. The Council offered to pay Ms B £500 for the uncertainty. It also agreed to find Ms B alternative permanent accommodation within the next three months (on condition she starts bidding for suitable properties) or pay her a further £500 and improve its procedures for the future.

The complaint

1. Ms B complained that the Council in respect of her application for keyworker status on the housing register:
• failed to give her the correct advice in May 2022 about how to apply for it;
• failed to respond to her and her MP’s communication about this matter between June 2022 and February 2023; and
• failed to process Ms B’s application for keyworker status since she applied in March 2023;
2. Ms B has potentially missed out on the opportunity to secure more suitable housing. She has also been caused significant distress and inconvenience.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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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How I considered this complaint

5. 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. Ms 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 scheme

6. The Council operates a choice-based letting scheme which awards different priority to people dependent on their housing needs and circumstances. The Council assessed applications and places them in one of three bands: Band 1 (A or B), Band 2 (A or B) then Band 3.
7. Homeless applicants with children and applicants who are overcrowded are placed in band 2A. The Council also awards additional priority to applicants who are keyworkers in the borough (working full- or part-time on a permanent contract as social workers, teachers, paramedics, NHS staff, firefighters or police officers). They are placed in Band 1B.

What happened

Background

8. Ms B, her partner and children, had been living in temporary accommodation for several years. The property was too small for them. Ms B was in Band 2A as an overcrowded, homeless applicant with a local connection.
9. In 2019 Ms B refused an offer of alternative accommodation on the grounds it was not suitable for her needs and served a notice to quit. In 2020 the Council reviewed its decision but decided the property was suitable. Ms B then appealed the Council’s decision in the county court. The court refused Ms B’s appeal.

Keyworker status

10. On 18 May 2022 Ms B contacted the Council by email to ask how she should apply for additional priority as a keyworker. On 24 May 2022 Ms B received an email advising her to apply for social housing. Ms B replied saying she was already on the housing register and provided her bidding number. Ms B chased the Council in June 2022 but did not receive a further reply.
11. In July 2022 Ms B made an application for medical priority as her daughter had been diagnosed with a new condition. On 5 September 2022 the Council sent Ms B the medical adviser’s recommendation. It did not refer to a change in banding: she remained in Band 2A. Ms B requested a review of the medical assessment.
12. In November 2022 Ms B became a full-time keyworker on a permanent contract.
13. In December 2022 Ms B complained to her MP about the difficulties with her housing application. Her MP contacted the Council on several occasions but by 31 January 2023 they had not received a response.
14. In February 2023 Ms B made a formal complaint herself about the failure to allow her to apply for additional priority as a keyworker. The Council replied on 13 March 2023. It said Ms B needed to complete a change of circumstances form and it apologised if this had not been made clear in previous correspondence. It also said this would not have made a difference to her waiting time, because Ms B had not supplied evidence to date that she would qualify as a keyworker and the average wait for a three bedroom property was 11 years.
15. Ms B completed a change of circumstances form on 15 March 2023.
16. Ms B escalated her complaint to stage two of the complaints process on 4 April 2023. She said the Council had not acknowledged that it had delayed for nearly a year in providing the correct information about how to apply for keyworker status and no-one had contacted her since she completed the form in March 2023.
17. The Council provided the application forms for the keyworker status and Ms B provided the requested documents to support the application.
18. On 19 April 2023 the Council sent Ms B a letter saying she was no longer eligible to remain on the register due to ‘No live SHR app’. Ms B queried this as she did not understand the letter. Her housing officer sent a reply saying:

“I can confirm that the letter is just confirming that you are no longer eligible to be on the Husing Register because you are now under Homeless and your Homeless Application should not be affected by the Cancellation in any way.”

19. Ms B queried the response saying she still did not understand the letter but did not receive a further reply. The Council wrote to Ms B’s employer on 8 June 2023 to confirm her employment status.
20. The Council replied to Ms B’s stage two complaint on 9 June 2023. It apologised for failing to reply to her enquiry in May 2022 and acknowledged the delays and repeated failures to respond to her correspondence since then. It also said that she would not have qualified for keyworker status until November 2022 and asked her to clarify the exact date she started on a permanent contract.
21. Ms B chased up the keyworker application in June 2023. The Council replied in July 2023 that it was having technical issues.
22. On 20 July 2023 Ms B received a notice seeking possession of her property based on the events in 2019 when she rejected a suitable offer of accommodation. The possession hearing in court was scheduled for August 2023.
23. On 30 August 2023 Ms B chased the Council again about her keyworker application and complained to us. The Council wrote to Ms B’s employer on 8 September 2023. It acknowledged that the employer had provided information in April 2023, but the Council needed to check this was still correct.
24. On 10 September 2023 Ms B received another email saying she was no longer eligible to remain on the register because she did not have a ‘live SHR app’. Ms B again queried this with the Council.
25. On 27 September 2023 it sent her a further complaint response. It said the Council had recently gone to court to obtain a possession order for her current accommodation and the Council would write to her shortly about this. But in the meantime, it confirmed she had been awarded keyworker priority backdated to the date she qualified and placed in Band 1B for a three bedroom property.
26. On 19 October 2023 the Council responded to an enquiry from Ms B’s local councillor. This said that Ms B was currently suspended from the housing register due to the possession order and the court had confirmed she would need to surrender the property. Because of this she would need to make a fresh housing application requesting keyworker status which would likely start from the date of her new application.
27. Ms B replied to her local councillor disputing that she had been awarded keyworker status or that she needed to make a fresh housing application.
28. On 15 November 2023 the Council notified Ms B that she now had keyworker status and was in Band 1B with effect from 8 November 2022.
29. In the Council’s response to my enquiries (20 December 2023) the Council said there was no evidence Ms B had applied for keyworker status until April 2023 and the decision to backdate the priority to November 2022 was an error. It confirmed her application was live on the housing register in Band 1B. It confirmed it had sought possession of the property as she had refused suitable alternative accommodation but gave no information about the status of this action. It did not answer my question as to whether Ms B missed out on any suitable three-bedroom properties due to the delay in awarding her keyworker status.
30. The Council confirmed on 2 February 2024 that it had not yet regained possession of Ms B’s property as it was awaiting an eviction warrant. It said it had provided details of properties let to applicants with a later preference date than 22 November 2023 and that Ms B had not bid on these properties, so they were not offered to her. I could not open the document. It also said Ms B’s housing application had been suspended between 6 September 2023 and 16 November 2023 but gave no reasons why.
31. Following further enquiries on this point the Council has identified several properties that Ms B could have bid on in October 2023 and if she had done so, it is likely she would have been offered them. The Council made an offer of permanent accommodation to Miss B but due to serious disrepair it has now withdrawn the offer.

Analysis

Keyworker priority

32. The Council failed to give Ms B correct advice in May 2022 about how to apply for keyworker status. It did not give correct information until March 2023 when it directed her to the change of circumstances form. This was fault. Although Ms B was not eligible for keyworker additional priority until 8 November 2022, the Council should still have responded to her emails and provided the correct information to enable her to apply at the correct time. It also failed to respond to her MP’s enquiry about the delay, exacerbating Ms B’s frustration and distress.
33. When Ms B did apply in April 2023 the Council took six months to determine her claim and award key worker status. This was further fault causing distress and inconvenience.
34. The Council did not confirm in writing until 15 November 2023 that it had awarded keyworker priority, placed her application in Band 1B and backdated it to 8 November 2022. This delay was fault which caused Ms B additional uncertainty and prevented her from bidding for more suitable accommodation.

Confusing communication

35. The Council has exacerbated the situation by failing to provide clear information about how the possession action taken by the Council since April 2023 has impacted on Ms B’s position on the housing register. The Council has also repeatedly failed to reply to Ms B’s queries about this issue.
36. In April 2023 it said Ms B was not eligible to remain on the housing register, but the reason was unclear due to the jargon used. The Council failed to respond to Ms B’s queries about the email. This was fault.
37. It said the same thing again in September 2023 but provided no explanation. Then in October 2023 the Council said to Ms B’s local councillor that Ms B was suspended from the housing register due to the possession action and would have to make a new application. However, in December 2023 it said to me that Ms B’s application was live on the housing register with additional keyworker priority awarded and backdated to November 2022.
38. It finally confirmed on 2 February 2024 that Ms B’s application had been suspended from 6 September until 16 November 2023 but gave no reasons why.
39. All of this information is incomprehensible and contradictory. It has caused and continues to cause Ms B uncertainty and frustration as to where and how she is going to obtain more suitable accommodation for her family.

Injustice

40. The Council’s failure to provide the correct advice to Ms B about how to apply for keyworker priority in March 2022 and the subsequent delay of seven months in processing her application, means that Ms B lost out on the opportunity to bid for more suitable properties (with Band 1B status and a preference date of 8 November 2022) for a year.
41. I have discounted the suspension from the housing register as the Council has provided no reasoning for this suspension and no evidence that it properly notified Ms B of the suspension or gave her a right of review against it.
42. The Council has finally provided information to say that Ms B missed out on the opportunity to bid on alternative properties (which she was likely to have been offered) in October 2023. It has offered £500 to account for that uncertainty and missed opportunity.

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Agreed action

43. Given that Ms B only missed out on securing alternative accommodation from October 2023 and had been offered permanent accommodation I considered the Council’s offer of £500 was a fair and proportionate way of resolving the complaint.
44. However, as the offer of permanent accommodation was then withdrawn, I recommended that, within three months the Council found Miss B an alternative offer of permanent accommodation (and continued to allow her to bid for it). If this was unsuccessful, I recommended the Council should pay her a further £500 for every three months she remains in her current accommodation.
45. The Council has agreed to this on condition Ms B starts bidding for accommodation and if she has not bid within three months the Council will make a direct offer equivalent to the property that was recently withdrawn. I agree that this a reasonable condition.
46. I also recommended that within three months the Council reviews its procedures to ensure:
• The Council is able to respond to changes in circumstance which may affect an applicants’ housing priority within eight weeks;
• The Council provides written notification if it is suspending a person from the housing register giving clear reasons why and a right of review;
47. The Council has agreed to these recommendations and should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman