The Ombudsman has been faced with a growing number of complaints in relation to significant delays in attribution of pre-natal family allowance, as well as in the initial attribution or reassessment of the income bracket of the family allowance for children and young people.

In 2020 183 complaints on these issues were received and this year, by the end of the first half, the total for the previous year had already been exceeded, following the receipt of 196 complaints.

These delays compromise not only the timely receipt of the family allowance, but also the access to other social support addressed to needy families, namely, the School Social Action, the attribution of scholarships, the increase of the unemployment benefit and the social electricity tariff.

Given this context, on 11 August, 2021, the Ombudsman drew the attention of the Management Board of the ISS – Institute of Social Security, I.P., in order to adopt measures and procedures in order to ensure, in due time and given the proximity of the new school year, effectiveness in appraising and deciding on the requests that are still pending appraisal, or that are presented in the meantime.

The Ombudsman is still awaiting a response from the Institute of Social Security, IP.

The letter sent to the ISS Board of Directors may be consulted here [in Portuguese only].

Updated 16.09.2021. To read the response received from ISS click here [in Portuguese only].

Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-09/cp210157it.pdf

Languages available: es de en fr it pt

Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea

COMUNICATO STAMPA n. 157/21

Lussemburgo, 16 settembre 2021

Sentenza nella causa C-341/20 Commissione / Italia L’Italia ha violato il diritto dell’Unione esentando dall’accisa i carburanti delle imbarcazioni private da diporto, noleggiate e utilizzate dagli utilizzatori finali per attività non commerciali Il fatto che il noleggio di un’imbarcazione costituisca un’attività commerciale per il soggetto che mette tale imbarcazione a disposizione di terzi non giustifica l’esenzione fiscale di cui trattasi

Il contratto di noleggio di un’imbarcazione è quello mediante il quale il noleggiante mette tale imbarcazione, a fronte del versamento di un prezzo (il nolo), a disposizione di un utilizzatore (il noleggiatore) che la utilizzerà per le proprie esigenze. In Italia, il noleggio costituisce per il noleggiante un’attività commerciale. Invece, il noleggiatore può utilizzare l’imbarcazione per scopi commerciali (ad esempio, il traporto di persone a pagamento) o a scopo di diporto. (...)

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked Staffordshire County Council to reconsider whether it pays for transport to get a teenager, who has autism, to her  college some 25 miles away.

Since moving to post-16 education, the girl has not received any financial help to get to the  college named in her Education, Health and Care Plan.

The council has argued it does not have a duty to provide transport assistance for the girl because she is in post-16 education and could use public transport, if accompanied.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found the council failed to take into account the actual journey the girl would have to make to get to the college. It did not consider the distance and location of the college meant it would take her significantly longer than the benchmark journey time of 75 minutes – recommended in the statutory guidance – to get there by public transport.

The mother had told the council that, irrespective that her daughter’s disability affects her ability to use public transport, because there is no direct bus link a single journey would take two hours. This would mean somebody accompanying her would have to spend all day travelling to and from the school.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:

“This is not the first case in which we have found problems with the way Staffordshire County Council has made decisions about providing school transport. Some of the faults we have found in those cases are similar to those here, including not taking individual circumstances into account, and not making decisions in line with its own policy when read in conjunction with statutory guidance.

“I am pleased the council has agreed to my recommendations and hope the learning it will share from this case will help ensure other teenagers are not affected by poor decision making in future.”

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s role is to remedy injustice and share learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the girl and her mother and pay the mother £300 to acknowledge the uncertainty and upset caused by the flawed decision making. It will also reconsider their school transport appeal, and backdate eligibility to the start of the Autumn 2020 term.

The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council has agreed to evidence how it has given all relevant staff and decision makers information about the lessons learned from the case.

It will also audit a sample of 20 per cent of transport applications for the 2020-21 school year for post-16 students and check it has made a proper assessment in line with statutory guidance and its own transport statement. If the council finds cases in the sample where the decision is flawed, it should then review all cases of post-16 students who have applied for transport on SEN or other disability grounds and the council has refused it but previously provided it for the 2020-21 year.

Article date: 16 September 2021

Taken into account media reports regarding the situation on the Latvian-Belarusian border, as well as information previously provided by non-governmental organizations about on the several groups of foreigners, including vulnerable people, being for a longer period situated on the state border in a helpless situation, representatives of the Ombudsman's Office on 2 September 2021 visited Daugavpils Administration of the State Border Guard.

During the visit, the representatives of the Ombudsman's Office met and discussed topical issues with the head of the Daugavpils administration, as well as border guards of separate structural units - border guard divisions and border control points - who guard the state border and whose tasks are to prevent illegal entry. Representatives of the office also visited certain sections of the state border and landmarks with Belarus to get acquainted with and assess the situation on the spot.

Although state border guards have a duty to prevent people from entering the country illegally, in situations where a person has already crossed the border, state border guards are aware of their duty to assess whether the migrant needs support such as clothing, food or emergency medical care. The State Border Guard pointed to several cases where such assistance was provided.

The Ombudsman has previously pointed out that during an emergency situation, the individual situation must be assessed, paying special attention to cases when an unaccompanied minor or a representative of another vulnerable group has entered the country.

Context

On 10 August 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers issued an order declaring emergency situation in certain administrative territories, taking into account the rapid increase in the number of cases of illegal crossing of the Latvian-Belarusian border. The emergency situation has been declared from 11 August 2021 to 10 November 2021 in Ludza, Krāslava and Augšdaugava districts, as well as in Daugavpils. Since August 2021, several groups of foreigners have been identified on the Latvian border with Belarus, who are refused entry from Belarus by the State Border Guard due to the declared emergency in the region, while Belarusian border guards prevent them from returning to Belarus as a country of initial entry.

When: 21 September 2021 - 22 September 2021

Where: Strasbourg, France

Joint event

FRA Director will visit the Council of Europe on 21-22 September in Strasbourg.

• He will exchange views with the Group on External Relations of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

He will also have bilateral meetings with European Court of Human Rights President Robert Spano, Parliamentary Assembly President Rik Daems, Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović, Human Rights and Rule of Law Director General Christos Giakoumopoulos and Anti-Discrimination Jeroen Schokkenbroek.

The discussions will focus on how to further strengthen cooperation between FRA and Council of Europe.

The visit also offers an opportunity to exchange views on current and future priorities. These include the European Union Fundamental Rights Information System (EFRIS), artificial intelligence, migration and asylum, civil society, Roma and Travellers, social rights, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on fundamental rights, and the Fundamental Rights Forum 2021.

FRA’s Director will also meet Heads of EU missions to the Council of Europe and the EU Delegation Head Meglena Kuneva.