Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

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Brian Ovens
Email address: mailto: / Our ref: / FOI/BD/20839
Your ref: / <your ref>
If calling ask for: / <name>Brian Dunnachie
Phone: / <your phone no>01698 527377
Date: / 22 November 2018

Dear <recipient name>Mr Ovens

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

Request for Information

I refer to your information request received by the Council on 3 December 2014 in which you ask for the following information relating to Housing Benefit:

I) Payments made to claimants living in private accommodation between April 2013 and April 2014.

Ia) Amount in GBP of payments made to claimants living in private accommodation between April 2013 and April 2014.

II) Payments made to housing association tenants between April 2013 and April 2014.

IIa) Amount in GBP of payments made to claimants living in housing association accommodation between April 2013 and April 2014.

III) Total amount paid out in Housing Benefit for the yearApril 2013 to April 2014.

The Council can give you all of the informationthat it has in relation to your request,asfollows:

Housing Benefit / 2013/14
I) Number of payments – Private Tenants / 87,743
Ia) Value of payments – Private Tenants / £26,688,032
II) Number of payments – HA/RSL Tenants / 70,662
IIa) Value of payments – HA/RSL Tenants / £17,516,877
III) Total value of HB payments / £90,472,909

Request for Review

The Council has a Review Panel to deal with complaints from people who are not happy about the way that it has handled their request. Staff not involved in the original decision will handle any review.

If you want to complain, you can ask the Review Panel to look at the way that we have dealt with your request. It will consider whether we have complied with the requirements of FOISA. Please note that if you wish to complain, you must do so by 3 March 2015.You must explainwhy you are not happy when requesting a review.

Please note that the Review Panel cannot look at any decisions taken by the Council or actions of the Council or any of its employees or a service provided by it that are not connected to the handling for request for information.

You should send your request for a review to:

Mr. W. Dunn

Information Compliance Manager

Finance and Corporate Resources

Floor 13

Council Offices

Almada Street

Hamilton

ML3 0AA

Alternatively, you can request a review at .

Appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner

If you are not happy with the outcome of the review, you can appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner. The Commissioner will decide whether the Council has dealt with your request properly. Please see the Commissioner’s website at for further details.

Yours sincerely

Fraser Morrison

Revenues and Benefits Manager