Council forced to pay £12k to man who lives in tent because he is 'allergic' to electricity

A council has been ordered to pay £12,000 to a man who lives in a tent because he claims he is allergic to electricity. Peter Lloyd, a former fitness instructor, has won a legal fight with Cardiff council after a judge ruled he should not have had his payments refused. The 45-year-old lives in a tent in the garden of a house he claims is "uninhabitable" because his electromagnetic hypersensitivity means he cannot be around any electric devices.

Mr Lloyd applied for direct payments to employ a helper. But the council had claimed he was not capable of managing money, Cardiff Civil Justice Centre heard. Quashing the council's decision, Mr Justice Singh said electromagnetic hypersensitivity was not a recognised condition in the UK. He added it was "not a matter for the court to say what the decision would have been if the authority went about its decision correctly".

Mr Lloyd, who uses plastic bottles and bags to go to the toilet, had asked his council for money so he could pay someone to clean up his mess and do his shopping, but the authority declined.

The syndrome is described by the NHS as a "claimed condition" that has no scientific basis and is not a recognised medical diagnosis.

However, sufferers say they are super-sensitive to magnetic and electrical fields. Representing Mr Lloyd, Christian Howells said: "Where he lives has to be adapted because the symptoms are very real to him."

The court heard Mr Lloyd lives in the back garden of a privately-owned home in Thornhill, Cardiff. He has refused alternative accommodation and a portable toilet and instead urinates in plastic bottles and defecates in bed pans lined with black bin bags.

When council workers went to collect Mr Lloyd's waste in May, they found 90 litres of urine and 40 bags of faeces. An insurance company deemed the house uninhabitable after flooding and the discovery of asbestos, but is has now been removed.

He has meals delivered five times a week because he has no fridge and has to have food which will not go off.

Rebecca Stickler, for the council, said: "The housing department has offered housing in a field and various properties and he has refused them all. It can't possibly be the case that a local authority should be compelled to use the public purse to pay money to someone who they know cannot manage that payment."

Mr Lloyd's private landlord has begun eviction proceedings in county court, he is estranged from his family and the council recognises him as homeless.

He claims he first started showing symptoms in his twenties from an early mobile phone and can now barely walk. He said: "I get a foggy feeling in the head after looking at a computer screen and had an inability to think straight. I have difficulty talking - what I called "thought block".'

Speaking after the ruling, Cardiff Councils' Cabinet Member for Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, Susan Elsmore, said: "The Council's role as a social services authority is to ensure that individuals have the opportunity to benefit from an appropriate assessment of their needs, and any services that may be necessary to meet them.

"The Council maintains that it has acted in keeping with its responsibilities, and in relation to this case that it has acted in good faith."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/06/council-forced-pay-12k-man-lives-tent-allergic-electricity/