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Man forced to give up job after London council moved him to Birmingham, ombudsman finds
A homeless man was forced to quit his job after being given temporary accommodation three hours away in Birmingham by a London council, an ombudsman investigation has found.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman concluded that Merton Council was at fault for failing to take the man’s employment status into account when making the offer of accommodation.
The man worked two jobs to support his family and claimed the told officers he was in employment when he approached the council for help in October 2017 – though the authority said it has no record of this.
However, the complaints arbitrator found evidence that the man told Merton Council in November 2017 that the three-hour commute meant he was struggling to keep down his jobs and that the authority did not consider moving him closer to his employment.
As well as giving up one of his jobs, he had to face increased travel costs for the other, the ombudsman found.
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Local government and social care ombudsman Michael King said: “Had the council listened to the man’s concerns, it is likely he would not have been placed so far away from his work.
“I have previously talked about how the pre-conceived ideas of homelessness no longer ring true, and we’ve seen people in work come to us with complaints about their councils’ housing support.
“This is another example of the kind of problems experienced in today’s housing situation.
“I have asked the council to review the way it places people in temporary and interim accommodation and hope other working homeless people will not be placed at such a disadvantage in the future.”
The man affected has now found private rented accommodation in London with the help of a council deposit scheme, the ombudsman said.
Merton Council has agreed to apologise and pay the man £1,200 to recognise the distress caused, plus £418 in travel costs and a further £150 for his time and trouble in bringing the complaint.
It will also remind staff of the need to consider council policies when offering temporary accommodation and review its placement policy to take account of self-employed people, the ombudsman said.
A spokesperson for Merton Council said: “We accept the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in this case and would like to take opportunity to apologise to the resident concerned.
“We have complied with the ombudsman ruling in full and have reviewed our procedures in line with the recommendations made.”
Figures released by the government last week showed there were 93,000 households in temporary accommodation across England at the end of March, up 9.4% from a year before. Of these, 25,540 were placed in another area.
