Council to pay £3m unpaid benefits to disabled residents

Dec 28 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A GROUP of disabled people are celebrating after Wirral Council gave in following an eight-year legal battle – and agreed to hand over up to £3m in unpaid benefits.

The group of 17 men and women who have learning difficulties rent accommodation in two “supported living” apartment blocks in Oxton, run by the not-for-profit voluntary organisation, Salisbury Independent Living.

They claimed the authority misinterpreted housing benefit regulations and wrongly withheld benefits averaging nearly £400 per week per person.

But despite winning their case at an Appeal Tribunal in Liver-pool in 2006 the council said it planned to appeal.

After winning their case last year their solicitor Paul Dumbleton, from Cardiff-based Beech Jones Law, said they feared the council had fought the case so long it had “too much to lose”. Wirral Council had claimed that the tenancy in place between the tenants at Talbot House and Carrigeen and the landlord, Salisbury Independent Living was “contrived”, and not therefore entitled to housing benefit.

The case centred around provis- ions made by Salisbury Indepen- dent Living in 2000 to take advant- age of changes in legislation for not-for-profit organisations providing social care services.

But Mr Dumbleton had said: “Clearly, if Salisbury Independent Living choose to make changes to its status and practices that are within the law – which they most certainly are – then they are entitled to do so. The council has simply misapplied the law, but has been fighting this case for so long it now has too much to lose.”

But at a meeting of Wirral Cabi-net this month, after the public had been excluded, members agreed not to pursue the appeal.

They also resolved “the arrears of £3.09m be met from the Housing Benefit Reserve” along with “the Benefit payments from January to March 2008 of £47,100 and the Counsel fees of £24,300”. The council also plans to increase its benefits budget by £188,500 “to meet ongoing claims”, and call for a change in regulations.

A spokesman for Wirral Council said: “Following representations from the Wirral’s Head of Legal and Member Services and Director of Finance, Cabinet members agreed that the most appropriate course of action in this case was not to appeal the DWP Commissioner’s ruling.

No-one from Salisbury Indepen-dent Living was available for comment, but the decision is expected to lift a substantial financial burden from them.

After the initial decision was made by the local authority to pursue the case through the courts, Salisbury Independent Living director John Wilberforce had told the Daily Post that the tenants, who have lived rent-free for up to seven years, were safe in their homes only because of the goodwill of the freeholder, Salis-bury Management Services Ltd.

He said SMS were “committed to this case and to providing ten-ants with the security they need”.

liammurphy