Housing Benefit Discrimination
Lee Johnson made this Freedom of Information request to London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Barking and Dagenham Borough Council,
Barking and Dagenham Council allocate only one bedroom to disabled housing benefit claimants based on the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006. No allowance is made in the Housing Benefit calculations for bedrooms allocated to overnight carers.
But the Court of Appeal ruled on the 15th May in "Burnip vs Birmingham City Council" that this discriminated unjustifiably against disabled claimants in respect of bedrooms allocated to overnight carers.
And this Court of Appeal ruling was reported in the Times Law Reports on the 21st August 2012.
Please can you provide the following information;
1, How many disabled people with bedrooms allocated to overnight carers have been denied housing benefit since the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 Act came into force.
2, What steps is the council taking to pay these disabled people the housing benefit they are owed as a result of the Court of Appeal ruling.
3, What is the average amount owed to each disabled housing benefit claimant with bedrooms allocated to overnight carers.
4, When will this process be completed.
Yours Faithfully, L.Johnson
Dear Mr Johnson
Request for information (LBBD/64824)
Thank you for your email received today requesting Housing Benefit data.
I have passed your request to our Revenue & Benefits Section who will
assign an officer to respond to your request by no later than 20 September
2012.
Whilst it is the Council policy to provide information wherever possible,
I need to advise you that there are a number of exemptions under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. These may prevent the Council from
releasing all or some of the information you have asked for. You will,
however, be informed if this is the case and we will explain why.
Yours sincerely
The Complaints & FOI Team
Building a better life for all
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Dear Mr Johnson
Request for information reference: LBBD/64824
Your request for information regarding allocation of one bedroom to disabled Housing Benefit claimants based on Housing Benefit Regulations has now been considered.
Please see details below in response to your request.
1, How many disabled people with bedrooms allocated to overnight carers have been denied housing benefit since the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 Act came into force.
A. We do not hold this information.
2, What steps is the council taking to pay these disabled people the housing benefit they are owed as a result of the Court of Appeal ruling.
A. Claimants would need to inform us that they have an overnight carer so that we can consider their claim.
3, What is the average amount owed to each disabled housing benefit claimant with bedrooms allocated to overnight carers.
A. We do not hold this information
4, When will this process be completed.
A. Not applicable, as customers will need to inform us that they have an overnight carer.
If you need any more information, or if I can be of any further help, please contact me.
If you are not satisfied with the way that I have dealt with your request you can make a complaint by writing to the Corporate Complaints Team, 2nd Floor, 15 Linton Road, Barking IG11 7HE Alternatively you can make your complaint on-line at www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk or you can e-mail your complaint to [email address].
If you are still not satisfied, after following our Corporate Complaints procedure, you can take your complaint to the Information Commissioner. Full details of how to do this will be made available on request.
Yours sincerely,
Nicola Ross | Complaints and Quality Assurance Officer | Revenues and Benefits Service
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | 90 Stour Road | Dagenham | RM10 7JD
Phone: 020 8724 8635 | Fax: 020 8227 2574
Website: www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk
Working together for a better borough that is safe, clean, fair and respectful, prosperous and healthy, and where our young people are inspired and successful.
P Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential
Dear Barking and Dagenham Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Barking and Dagenham Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Housing Benefit Discrimination'.
The March 2012 COA ruling in Burlap vs Birmingham City Council clearly overturns the stance by LBBD that disabled housing benefit claimants are not entitled to more than one bedroom for overnight carers, based on the 2006 regulations. The FOI response now provided by LBBD indicates that LBBD has little or no concerns that they have been depriving ddisabled people to the housing benefit that they are fully entitled to. It is clearly the responsability of the counicl in these circumstances to review all past housing benefit claims since 2006 involving disabled claimants with overnight carers to ensure that additioinal housing benefit payments are retrospectivly made.
My FOI requets sought to identify what, if anything, LBBD were going to do to address this requirement. But the LBBD response indicates that LBBD has no interest in correctly applying the law.
I request a review of my FOI.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...
Yours faithfully,
Lee Johnson
Dear Mr Powell,
Please see the attached acknowledgement letter.
Kind regards
The Complaints Team
.
E-mail confidentiality notice. This message is intended for the addressees
only. It may be private, confidential and may be covered by legal
professional privilege or other confidentiality requirements. If you are
not one of the intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately
on +44 0 20-8215-3000 and delete the message from all locations in your
computer network. Do not copy this email or use it for any purpose or
disclose its contents to any person:to do so maybe unlawful.
Dear Mr Johnson
Request for information reference: LBBD/65514
Your request for a review of the handling of your FOI request regarding
the allocation of one bedroom to disabled Housing Benefit claimants based
on Housing Benefit Regulations has now been considered.
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham appreciate your concerns
regarding this matter and would like to assure you that we are concerned
about the welfare of our customers and to the best of our ability try and
ensure customers receive all they are entitled too.
With regards to your original enquiry, unfortunately the Authority does
not hold the information to be able to identify customers who have a
bedroom allocated to a carer and may be entitled to more Housing Benefit.
Our website gives information regarding this matter and officers are
available in the One Stop Shops to help customers with their
applications. Local advice agencies, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau
would also be able to offer advice.
We aim to ensure that all of our Housing Benefit claims are correct and
that people are receiving the correct level of entitlement. Please accept
this letter as confirmation that any case identified requiring an
amendment will be corrected during the ongoing reviews that we have of our
caseload.
If you remain dissatisfied with the response I have provided you, you can
request for the Information Commissioner's office to consider your
complaint for you. Further information can be found at [1]www.ico.org.uk
If you need any more information, or if I can be of any further help,
please contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Wayne-Micah Marius-Paul | Deputy Head of Benefits Elevate East London | 90
Stour Road | Dagenham | RM10 7JD
Phone: 020 8227 3593
email: [2][email address]
website: [3]www.elevateeastlondon.co.uk
P Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential
.
E-mail confidentiality notice. This message is intended for the addressees
only. It may be private, confidential and may be covered by legal
professional privilege or other confidentiality requirements. If you are
not one of the intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately
on +44 0 20-8215-3000 and delete the message from all locations in your
computer network. Do not copy this email or use it for any purpose or
disclose its contents to any person:to do so maybe unlawful.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.elevateeastlondon.co.uk/
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