Advice about additional bedroom for couple who cannot share due to separate disabilities.

Reddragon69

hi everyone, hope you are all well. My stage 1 and 2 complaint to the council was not upheld and I have to write to the Ombudsman now. My complaint was in respect of needing an additional bedroom for as a couple, both with disabilities. We are unable to share a bedroom. My partner has sleep apnea and wears a machine at night that is noisy and emits cold air. He also has severe arthritis and is very restless at night. He pulls his machine off and the noise of the air wakes me. He snores excessively loud like a machine. He gasps for air and cries out in pain. We split up years ago because of this before he was diagnosed and about ten years ago we rented a private three bedroom house as he could not keep sleeping on the lounge with his arthritic shoulders. He moves every twenty minutes as he cannot get comfy. We received the three bed LHA for severe disability with no quibble. I have chronic hemiplegic migraine which is like having a stroke with paralysis. I have them at night too. They are very disabling and I have to try to manage my triggers and limit my episodes. I am also a light sleeper. I take about an hour to doze off and get repeatedly woken. This leads to cross words between us and me feeling guilty that he goes and sleeps downstairs on the sofa where I know he is uncomfortable. I lie awake for hours trying not to complain. Both of us are not getting good sleep. Also, I have to sleep on a mattress on the floor in case I fall off the bed when I have my episodes in bed. My partner finds this uncomfortable.

We also look after a child who was previously in care and suffered neglect and abuse. We need to be well to care for him. He has Autism and attends a SEN school. I cannot understand why the council do not understand that his placement with us is at risk if we cannot have good sleep to manage our conditions. My partner cannot wear his CPAP mask in bed with me as it is too noisy and this makes him tired. He has to drive our child 15 miles one way to school each day. We have explained everything in detail to the council and given medical evidence but they are not budging.

We are waiting for an Occ Health assessment but we still have another six months to wait. Is it worth trying the Ombudsman without the Occ Health report. I don’t know how successful we would be. Thank you for any advice.