Ealing Council has been criticised by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman over denying housing help to a pregnant woman who had suffered domestic abuse and harassment from her former partner.
The woman was sofa-surfing with relatives in Ealing, away from her partner, when she approached Labour-run Ealing Council for help in early summer 2023.
The Ombudsman said Labour-run Ealing Council used an outdated definition of domestic abuse to deny her help.
Police, her midwife and other support agencies said it was not safe for the woman to return to her previous home in another borough.
The Ombudsman said: “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.”
Ealing Council said 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 said it was correct.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman then investigated. It said it discovered the council was using an outdated definition of domestic abuse which was limited to physical attacks. According to the Ombudsman this didn’t includes non-physical abuse made such as psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour, which came into force in 2021.
The Ombudsman also found the council disregarded information that her ex-partner kicked in the woman’s door, because the police took no further action to prosecute the partner. The Ombudsman said that 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.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Amerdeep Somal said: “This case demonstrates a clear lack of understanding within the council’s housing department of what constitutes domestic abuse, as defined by law. The idea that domestic abuse is limited to physical violence is outdated. This lack of knowledge could potentially have affected other vulnerable people in the council’s area.”
Ms Somal added: “It failed to even investigate whether it owed her a duty to house her, or to offer her interim accommodation. Instead, it left a pregnant woman to sofa-surf with family. This woman had the additional distress and indignity of giving birth not knowing where she and her baby would live. I hope the measures the council has agreed to put in place will ensure other vulnerable people who have suffered domestic abuse do not have their experiences discounted in future.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of Ealing Liberal Democrats said: “Liberal Democrats are totally shocked by the details of this case. The Labour-run Ealing Council should support those suffering from the different forms of domestic abuse.”
Councillor Malcolm added: “The victims have already suffered enough and not helping them is a travesty in this ombudsman case. Ealing Council again needs to review its procedures which are letting vulnerable people down, week in, week out.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “We are sorry for the procedural errors we made in this case around the statutory rules on domestic abuse, and for the impact the errors have had on this person.
“Domestic abuse ruins lives, and we should have done better in this case. We accept the Ombudsman’s finding that we should have been more proactive with supporting her to apply for our housing register. We have apologised and provided compensation to them.
“This case was also affected by the fact that we implemented a new allocations policy midway through our handling of her initial enquiry and incorrectly applied the outdated version. We are urgently reviewing the person’s application to join our housing register using our new allocations policy.
“It is categorically not true that we did not investigate whether we owed the person a housing duty or offer her interim accommodation. We assessed and reviewed her case and repeatedly offered her emergency housing, which she refused. We are approaching the Ombudsman to raise questions about this serious misunderstanding of the facts of this case.
“We have made some internal changes as a result of the Ombudsman’s recommendations. We have amended our internal procedures to be more proactive and are providing additional guidance to our officers on the statutory rules on domestic abuse.”
Neil Reynolds, chair of Ealing Green Party told EALING.NEWS of his concerns. He said: “This is another case of appalling maladministration by Ealing council where it has failed to protect one of its most vulnerable residents. The simple fact is that there’s not enough social housing to go round.”
Mr Reynolds added: “The refusal of the Labour government to fund a programme of council house building means that we may well face many more cases such as this.”
