Disabled man gets £10k payout from Tower Hamlets Council after a lack of help whilst homeless following eviction

Following an Ombudsman investigation, the council was told to pay a man left to sleep in his car for weeks

A man with disabilities and complex needs has been awarded over £10,000 after Tower Hamlets Council took too long to help him when he was being evicted from his home, causing him to sleep in his car for several weeks.

The man, known as Mr X in a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman decision, was put under ‘considerable stress and worry’ in the months before he was evicted from his private rented home.

The Ombudsman found faults in the council’s adult social care and housing teams and the man has been awarded £10,228 in compensation and other costs.

A council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that it fully accepts the Ombudsman’s findings and has apologised to Mr X for the stress and worry it caused him.

The Ombudsman said Mr X was placed in ‘unsuitable’ accommodation, and at times was left without any home. The council’s adult social care team failed to ensure Mr X’s care needs were fully recorded and did not work proactively with the housing team to make sure any housing provided would meet his assessed care needs.

He was without any support for his care needs after the morning call he had with the council on the day he was evicted and on another weekend when he had no accommodation.

The Ombudsman said in its decision: ‘As a result of council failings, Mr X was caused considerable stress and worry over many months before being evicted, had to sleep in his car for a weekend when the council failed to provide housing, slept in his car for several weeks when it provided unsuitable accommodation and did not always receive his care package.

‘Mr X said the lack of support with housing and his care needs adversely affected his mental and physical health, which meant he spent several weeks in hospital.’

The Ombudsman found the council was at fault in causing injustice and has agreed to pay Mr X £8,500 in compensation for the stress and worry which impacted his physical and mental health.

The Ombudsman calculated this based on the 14 months of delay and/or unsuitable accommodation from October 2022 to January 2024 at £500 a month – which is higher than the usual amount of £150 to £350 a month to reflect the ‘significant injustice caused and his vulnerability’.

This includes an additional £1,500 for the impact the ordeal had on Mr X’s dignity and health. A further £424.50 will be paid to remedy the ‘avoidable’ court costs Mr X experienced and a further £1,045 to reimburse Mr X for removal costs and £259 for storage costs.

The council must also liaise with Mr X to agree on action to clear any sums in relation to parking tickets as a result of parking close to the accommodation because he could not walk any further.

The council must review its process when rebooking interim and temporary accommodation to ensure that it provides appropriate reasonable adjustments for disabled applicants and review how it provides services to homeless people with care needs.

Relevant housing staff will be reminded of the need to contact the council’s adult social care team if a resident who is receiving a care package is being moved to alternative accommodation and, unless there is a genuinely urgent need to move quickly, to give the team enough notice so the care package can be transferred to avoid any interruptions in care.

The council has agreed to carry out all of the actions within three months. A spokesperson for the council said: ‘We fully accept the report and its findings, and we apologise to Mr X for the stress and worry we caused him.

These findings came at a time when we were facing unprecedented demand for housing and homelessness services.’

They added: ‘This is not an excuse, we can and will do better to provide services to people who are homeless with complex care needs. Our team is working hard to improve and already acting on the report’s recommendations.’

The council is investing £1.3million into improvements within its homelessness service and customer journey, including ICT improvements, better record keeping, performance dashboards and enhanced staff training.

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