South West London Integrated Care Board

2. Mrs A says the ICB inappropriately allowed her brother, Mr B, to sign a tenancy agreement when he did not have capacity to do so. She says as a result of this failing her brother has accrued rental arrears which the housing association is now pursuing her for. To resolve her complaint Mrs A would like the rental arrears to be paid by the ICB and assurances given that the family will not be pursued for them in future.

3. Mr B signed a tenancy agreement with the housing association (the HA) on 31 October 2019 whilst being supported by the ICB. Mr B’s rent was paid by the Local Authority (LA) through Housing Benefit (HB) from the date the tenancy started on 16 October 2019. The LA suspended Mr B’s HB on 30 May 2021. Mrs A has since been contacted by the HA for payment of Mr B’s rental arrears for the period following the suspension of his HB.

5. The ICB has upheld Mrs A’s complaint about the supervision it provided to Mr B when signing the tenancy agreement and it has accepted he did not have capacity to sign it. The ICB has accepted it did not follow its own procedure for supporting adults who lack capacity and did not ensure the person who accompanied him had lasting power of attorney to help him with such decisions. The ICB has apologised to Mrs A for this and reviewed its procedure to reduce the risk of similar failures happening again in future.

6. From the evidence provided to us we have seen the Court of Protection decided Mr B’s move to the HA property was appropriate and in his best interests in the court order dated 15 October 2019. We have seen no evidence to indicate Mr N’s accommodation at the HA was inappropriate or unsuitable for his needs.

7. Mr B’s rent was paid by HB from the start of his tenancy on 16 October 2019 and continued for 19 months. HB was suspended by the LA on 30 May 2021 after it did not receive the information it requested about Mr B’s financial circumstances during a HB review. It is at this point that Mr B’s tenancy began to accrue rental arrears. HB was not reinstated at any point and the HA approached Mrs A, as her brother’s appointee (the person responsible for making and maintaining any benefit claims when the person concerned lacks capacity), for payment of his rental arrears.

8. The evidence indicates it was the decision of the LA to suspend Mr B’s HB which led to his rental costs no longer being paid by HB from 30 May 2021. We have not seen any evidence to indicate Mr B’s HB was stopped as a result of any action from the ICB and we have seen no evidence to indicate the ICB had any involvement in Mr B’s housing arrangements or HB at any point after it was started.

9. We have not seen any evidence to indicate the failure of the ICB to follow its procedure for supporting adults who lack capacity when Mr B signed the tenancy agreement can be linked to the claimed injustice of the rental arrears. The rental arrears started after Mr B’s HB claim was suspended 19 months after the tenancy agreement was signed and following action taken by a different organisation.

10. We have seen no evidence to indicate Mr B would not have signed the tenancy agreement and been placed in the property if the ICB had followed its procedure for supporting adults who lack capacity. The evidence indicates the move to the property had already been approved by the Court of Protection.

11. There is an alternate dispute resolution forum available to Mrs A which we think is reasonable for her to pursue. HB has an appeal process in place which allows for a retrospective review of any period where HB has been suspended by the LA. This process has previously been recommended by the ICB and the LA as a potential resolution to the outstanding rental arrears.

12. For the reasons we have set out above we have decided not to consider Mrs A’s complaint further. Once again we acknowledge the severity of the complaint and the impact this has had on her and her brother. It is clear this has been extremely frustrating for her and this was clear to us during our consideration of the evidence she provided and the discussions we had. We hope this statement helps Mrs A to understand how we have reached our decision.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about the ICB. We have decided we cannot link the event complained about to the claimed injustice of rental arrears. We acknowledge how upsetting this incident has been for Mrs A and that it continues to cause her considerable distress and frustration.