The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to decline Mr X’s son’s blue badge renewal application. This is because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X by the likely fault.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to decline his son’s blue badge renewal application. He says the Council failed to consider his son’s personal independence payment (PIP) award of 12 points for planning and following a journey.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X applied for his son’s blue badge renewal. In April 2022, the Council declined Mr X’s application as his son did not qualify for a Blue Badge under the automatic criteria. The Council said for this reason, it could not issue a badge.
If we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault causing Mr X injustice. This is because Mr X appealed the Council’s decision in May 20222, but the Council failed to deal with Mr X’s appeal.
The Council said it did not treat Mr X’s request as an appeal as he had applied under the wrong criteria. It noted Mr X had to make a new application under the hidden disabilities criteria.
We consider this to be an overly bureaucratic approach as it is clear the Council was aware Mr X meant to apply under the hidden disabilities criteria. Further, all the information Mr X would provide with a new application would likely have been the same. Therefore, the Council had all the relevant information needed to consider Mr X’s appeal.
We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by the likely fault by considering Mr X’s appeal/application under the hidden disabilities criteria.
Agreed action
To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the above within four weeks of the final decision.
Final decision
We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman