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Could anyone help with this please ?
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Message 1.Â
Posted by tillytrolly (U8311312) on Thursday, 22nd July 2010
I'm trying to help an old lady (in her 80s). Her family are not very good at approaching authority/putting things in writing etc,....any advice about how to tackle this would be welcome.
Her husband died a couple of years ago ...the house she was living in had been too much for them for some time & she was desperate to move near to her daughter (there was no suitable small property nearer to where she was living). This was only a few miles away...but it did involve crossing a county border. Unfortunately, her daughter has since died & she wishes to move into a "retirement village" which has since been developed a few roads away where she'd been previously living. It's a combination of a private development & funding by the council. Their regulations state that it's open to pensioners living in that area or can prove a close connection there. They define a "close connection" as having a son/daughter/brother/sister there. She does have a niece (to whom she is very close & who has a mother/daughter relationship with her...her own mother having died) & a sister in law there (her brother, who was the sister in law's husband, died recently), so, technically, she doesn't qualify. She did, however, live in the area for over 80 years (having been born there & living there all her life until her husband's death) & has only lived a few miles away for 2 years.
I know that rules are rules, but I do think common sense should be applied somewhere & I think that, if someone who has only lived in that area for 2 years & has no previous history/relatives there should be eligible then so should she.
Has anyone any experience of this kind of thing & any advice ?
Thanks -
Message 2
Posted by pahnda (U14386869) on Thursday, 22nd July 2010
Hi tt, has she actually made an application and been refused?
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Message 3
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Thursday, 22nd July 2010
Good for you Tilly. :0)
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Message 4
Posted by Bearhug (U2258283) on Thursday, 22nd July 2010
No experience, but I too would try an application to find out whether my connections were close enough or not.
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Message 5
Posted by carrick-bend (U2288869) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:43 GMT, in reply to tillytrolly in message 1
I'd second the posters who advise making an application - write all that you have said in your OP, in detail. Thinking about it, if someone has no family (hypothetically, only child, childless) how else could they possibly hope to qualify but having lived in the area for a lifetime?
You may well find that some discretion can be applied. -
Message 6
Posted by Adaptery (with brackets) (U13803003) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
Is the niece her closest living relative/next-of-kin?
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Message 7
Posted by Sunny Clouds (U14258963) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
If the decision as to whether to let her live there is made by the council, it has to be reasonable. If they don't allow her to live there, you could consider threatening a judicial review to see if that would cause them to make them change their minds, but it might cause friction which might get things off to a bad start if she goes to live there.
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Message 8
Posted by tillytrolly (U8311312) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
No, she hasn't made an application because she was told she wouldn't have a chance.....but this was by a young marketing front desk type for the company who just read out the guidelines they had.from the council. I'm certainly against people "barging in" from outside & I can understand why they have these rules, but it does seem unfair on someone who was born & lived there for over 80 years & only moved away for a very short period following a spouse's death....in comparison say, with someone who may only have been living in the area for a few months or a year without any other connections there. Her niece isn't her closing living relative, but her son lives at the other end of the country & has severely disabled children to look after.
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Message 9
Posted by tillytrolly (U8311312) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
"closest living relative".....try to stay awake tilly !
Someone has suggested to me that she should simply say that her niece is her daughter.....but I don't think this is a very good way to go about things & they'd probably check, I guess -
Message 10
Posted by laughingDeborah (U13727461) on Friday, 23rd July 2010
Well a proper detailed application seems like a good start and I wish you and your friend good luck and hope that common sense does indeed prevail. Do please let us know the outcome.
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