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29 July 2010
Issue: 7428 / Categories: Case law , Law reports
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Housing—Persons in need of care and attention—Duty of local authority

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R (on the application of Zarzour) v London Borough of Hillingdon [2009] EWCA Civ 1529, [2010] All ER (D) 223 (Jul)

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Laws, Etherton LJJ and Lewison J, 17 Dec 2009

The Court of Appeal has given further guidance on s 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948 (NAA 1948).

Tim Kerr Bewly (instructed by Fisher Meredith) for the claimant. Kevin Rutledge (instructed by London Borough of Hillingdon Legal Department) for the defendant. Lisa Busch (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the Secretary of State.

The claimant was a Lebanese national. He arrived in the UK in March 2008 and claimed asylum. He still awaited the secretary of state’s decision. As an asylum seeker he was ineligible for mainstream social security benefits including housing benefit. He was entirely blind. He approached the defendant local authority for an assessment of his community care needs. The authority’s social workers carried out an assessment of the claimant’s position. They reported that whilst the claimant was independent of personal

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