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Pregnant woman turned away for housing
Ealing council wrongly turned away a pregnant woman who approached it for help with housing, despite police and other agencies saying it was not safe for her to return to her tenancy in another area.
The woman had suffered domestic abuse and harassment at the hands of her former partner, and was sofa-surfing with family in Ealing, when she approached the council for help.
But despite having family support in the area, and the fact the police, her midwife and an independent domestic violence advisor raised concerns about the risk to the woman and her unborn child, the council decided she did not meet its criteria for help.
The council decided there were ‘no special circumstances’ to exempt her from meeting its local residency criteria to enable her to join the housing register.
The woman appealed the council’s decision, but it remained firm that it was correct.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman was asked to investigate. It found the council used an outdated, narrow definition of domestic abuse, limiting it to physical attacks. This is contrary to the legal definition that includes non-physical abuse, including psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour, which came into force in 2021.
The Ombudsman also found the council disregarded information that the ex-partner had kicked in the woman’s door, because the police took no further action to prosecute the partner. Instead of relying on the lower ‘balance of probabilities’ standard of proof it should do when making decisions, the council instead applied the higher ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ standard of proof used in a legal criminal case, which was completely wrong.
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Source: The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, UK
