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45
within fifteen days. On receipt of these new forms they were
checked, indexed, "basic" points assessed, and each applicant
issued with an acknowledgement card giving particulars of the
registration number and the provisional "basic" points allocation.
Several hundred cases had to be referred to the Medical Officer of
Health before "basic" points could be awarded, since medical
certificates were submitted in support of such applications,
necessitating consideration for additional "basic" points being
awarded to appropriate cases in accordance with the Health Clause
(paragraph 21) of the new scheme. In connection with this part
of the work, I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my
appreciation of the valuable co-operation renderd to the Department
by the Medical Officer of Health.
Present Position.
A large proportion of the original applicants (approximately
1,800) circularised did not reply and the position on Saturday, the
15th January, was that 3,177 applications stood on the "live"
register. Of these, 1,304 stated that they were sharing accommodation
with friends or relatives, and 1,873 stated that they were
occupying accommodation as separate lettings. 840 applicants
indicated they were registered with other local authorities, but this
figure has already shown to be rather unreliable as it has been proved
that a number of applicants have failed to disclose the fact that they
were registered with other authorities. This is possibly due to an
erroneous assumption of their part that registration with another
authority would prejudice their claim with this Council.
It is important to note that the initial award of points is based
upon the information supplied by the applicant, and this information
is, of course, subject to a careful verification later by a personal
visit to the applicant's home. As indicated in Table 'B' the highest
"basic" points in re.spect of families requiring one bedroomed,
two bedroomed and three bedroomed accommodation are between
30 and 40, and the new scheme has the effect of spreading these
applications out quite well until one gets down to 20 basic points.
Referring to the lower half of this Table, it will be observed the
number in each "basic" points group increases, although of course,
the application of "balancing" points helps to sort out cases in
each points group. The highest number of cases in any one points
group is 129 having 6 "basic" points amongst those families
requiring two bedroomed accommodation. Altogether, there are
four "basic" points groups in which there are more than 100
applicants, and all these relate to families requiring two bedroomed
accommodation.