My client claimed a DHP in February 2006. The claim was not acted on until I rang the council a month later (20th March). By the time the decision was made the new tax year had started and DHP has been awarded only from 3rd April. The explanation for this is that they are now unable to access the fund for last tax year as the remaining money has been repaid. I intend to complain about this, but is there any redress for what I consider to be maladministration or can they simply say "the money is no longer available, so hard luck"? My client has lost out on 8 weeks' money at £10 per week.

Sending back last year's money before ensuring that they'd settled all last year's claims does not sound like particularly good administration to me. And your client has clearly got an arguable case that s/he has suffered injustice and "injury". From what you have said the LA did decide that your client was entitled because they paid from 3 April, so they'll have a hard time claiming that they would not have made an award from Feb anyway.

I am no expert but I would have thought that the Ombudsman might be interested, and the LA might well do something to avoid it getting that far.

Thanks for that. It had occurred to me to go down the Ombudsman route, but I'll see what the council have to say first.

Before going to the Ombudsman I would contact the Council and get them to put the reasons for only awarding the DHP from April in writing.

The DHP final claim (which incidentally does not have to be submitted to the DWP until 31st May) looks at DHPs paid in that year, not the period to which payments relate. (For the real anoraks this is stated in Form Convention number 3 of the guidance notes to form DHP3E)

So an award paid after April 2006 will all count towards the 2006/07 fund allocation even if some of it related to a period prior to April 2006. There is therefore no issue about "accessing" the fund for the last tax year.

I would guess that whoever told you the reason for the decision to only pay from April may have misunderstood the arrangements and gave you the wrong explanation.

You start by making a complaint to the Council on the way the HB office failed to deal with the claim on time and ask for the 8 weeks at £10 a week as compensation. The Ombudsman is your last resort if the Council do not deal with yopur complaint to your satifaction.

When you get the HB reason for refusing the payment from Feb to April make an appeal.

"I would guess that whoever told you the reason for the decision to only pay from April may have misunderstood the arrangements and gave you the wrong explanation".........

or put another way, "this application got seriously overlooked......"

, the Ombudsman should defiantly be the last resort as a case of maladministration will be very difficult to prove.

DHPs are not HB/CTB and the HB/CTB rules do not apply to them.

There is no specific time limit for the deciding claims for DHPs, just that the claimant is told the decision “as soon as reasonably practical”. It will therefore be very difficult to argue that the LA failed to deal with the claim on time.

The LA are quite entitled to decide that they will only pay the DHP from April even if the application was made in February. Reg 5 says “A relevant authority may restrict the period for or in respect of which discretionary housing payments may be made to such period as it considers appropriate in the particular circumstances of a case”. This is subject only to the usual test of reasonableness.

It looks to me as if one of three things happened in your client’s case.

1) The LA decided your client should get DHP, but had already committed their allocation for 2005/06. Rather than refusing the claim outright they effectively treated it as an advanced claim for April when the new allocation kicked in.

2) The LA decided to pay a DHP but decided only to grant it from April.

3) The LA decided to pay a DHP but didn’t make a decision until April and then misunderstood the allocation provisions resulting in them not awarding 8 weeks entitlement that they agree your client should have had.

If 1 or 2 above I think you have no chance with the ombudsman at all as the LA are acting within the regulations and the only apparent remedy would possibly be JR.

If 3 above you would have a chance with the ombudsman, but only if the LA admit this was the reason for their decision. That is why I think you need to get an explanation of the decision in writing first.

There is nothing in the regulations to stop them using this year's money to pay DHP for an earlier period. The Regs make it clear that the Council has a discretion at to what they pay for what period (reg 2(2)(b)). This is the easiest way to get them to pay up. I've just got a payment for a client dating back to 2002. It will be unlawful for them to refuse to do this as it's their fault there was delay.

Alternatively, it is important to be aware that the DHP pot for a local authority is only partly made up of central government money; the rest is put in by the LA themselves and therefore they can't simply say they've given it all back to central government.

Ask them how much of last year's pot was from central govt and how much from them. Ask them how much they spent and how much was left. They should give you all this under FOIA. Then ask them to pay your client out of what they had left (if the above argument based on the regs doesn't work); also point out it's a pittance and they shouldn't be so unreasonable.

Call me on the public law specialist support line if you want more help - 0808 808 4546.

Louise

As i understand it, the monies put up by Government has to be matched by the LA - ie, 50/50. So if this LA has sent some back, this indicates an underspend which in turn means that the LA has money left in it's DHP budget. If they prevaricate or just won't tell you how much they had left, try using the FOI...........

The maximum amount of DHP a council can pay out in a year is set by the DWP. The DWP also makes a contribution (rather less than half the maximum).

However, the budget a Council chooses to set for DHPs is a matter for the individual council, limited only by the maximum already mentioned.

Many Councils make the decision to set the budget at the level of the DWP contribution as there is no spare Council Tax money for the LAs to put into the pot.