Mother receives apology after council threatens to make her homeless

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ordered the authority to pay £200 to the woman after a council official claimed she had lied to the authority over her immigration status.

The Ombudsman’s findings came in a report on how the council had handled a complaint by the mother, referred to as Miss X, who said council bosses didn’t believe she had applied to stay in the UK and told her she and her children should leave the country.

Saying the council was at fault in the way it had handled her case and the subsequent complaint, the local government watchdog found: "Miss X suffered avoidable distress and loss of support for a short period because of this fault.

"There is the potential for others to be affected by this fault in the future."

A report outlining the case said Miss X came to the UK on a student visa and her two children were born here.

She remained in the country after her visa ran out and in 2014 she was offered accommodation by the council as her children were seen as being in need.

At that time the council advised her to contact the Home Office to ask for leave to remain in the country.

In 2017 the council decided that because her immigration status hadn’t changed it was no longer required to provide her support.

A human rights assessment by the authority in July said there were no legal or practical barriers to her and her children returning to her country of origin.

Miss X disagreed and said her children were British citizens as they had been born in the UK.

She said a council officer had accused her of lying when she said she had applied for leave to remain in the UK and the council had refused proof of postage as evidence she had sent the forms to the Home Office.

The council said it had checked with the immigration service which said it hadn’t received the application.

In September 2017 the council told her it was stopping their support as she had no recourse to public funds.

Later that month the Home Office confirmed it had received an application from Miss X and the council withdrew its decision.

She was later granted permission to remain in the the UK.

In his report the Ombudsman criticised officers for not accepting proof of postage as evidence and the way it handled her complaint.

In reaching his findings the Ombudsman said: “The council should have considered whether Miss X’s application might have been received by the Home Office but not yet processed.

“There is no evidence it asked the Home Office if it was working with a backlog. It made no further checks on whether an application had been made, apparently because it did not believe Miss X.

“Miss X suffered avoidable distress and loss of support for a short period because of this fault. There is the potential for others to be affected by this fault in the future. I have recommended actions to prevent this and remedy injustice to Miss X which the Council has agreed to take.”

Sandwell has since agreed to pay £200 compensation as a token remedy for distress and loss of service following its decision to stop support and apologize for the officer’s statement about about her.

It will also review its policy regarding proof of postage in the future.