A GRIEVING mother was sent a letter threatening to cut her benefits “because her son was living at her address” – though he had died 20 months earlier while under the care of the same council.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s benefits office wrote to Barbara Bonnot demanding to know when her son Steffan had moved into her address.

But he had died in January 2016 aged 17 after running away from Brighton and Hove children’s service.

The letter starts off: “We have been informed from the care leavers’ list provided to us by children’s services that Mr Steffan Bonnot now resides at your property”.

But the same children’s services placed Steffan in more than 30 different placements and was still responsible for his care at the time of his death

The letter goes on to promise Barbara they would “award a discretionary discount” to Steffan until his 26th birthday.

Tragic Steffan never even made his 18th.

Finally the letter, received last week, threatens in bold type that if Barbara failed to respond, her housing benefit could be suspended.

The devastated mother, who lives in Brighton, told The Argus: “The letter said they had been referred by children’s services about my son leaving care and coming to live with me.

“But my son died whilst in their care.

“How can they keep making these mistakes?

“Where did they get this information? How could they possibly mess this up? When I first read the letter I couldn’t understand it.

“Then I went in to the housing office and I had to show them the report of my son’s inquest in The Argus to prove he was dead.

“The letter was even dated August 10 – my other son’s birthday.”

Barbara had desperately hoped Steffan, who had been in care since 2004, would be able to move back home with her but he committed suicide near Littlehampton after leaving a foster care placement on New Year’s Day 2016.

After being contacted by The Argus, Brighton and Hove City Council offered an “unreserved apology” for the “dreadful mistake” and contacted Ms Bonnot to promise the error would be investigated.

Steffan’s death sparked a serious case review into how Brighton and Hove children’s services and other agencies had handled his care.

Following an inquest into his death last month, West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield ordered Brighton and Hove City Council to review its practices to prevent further deaths.

A council spokesman said: “This is a dreadful mistake and we will be contacting Ms Bonnot as a matter of urgency to offer her our unreserved apologies We are also reviewing our systems as a matter of urgency to try and make sure no such mistake ever happens again.”

YEARS OF CARE FAILINGS LED UP TO TEENAGER’S DEATH

A NUMBER of failings were made by the services intended to protect vulnerable children such as Steffan Bonnot.

A serious case review after his death found the professionals looking after him knew he was thinking about self harm.

The report by Brighton and Hove’s Safeguarding Children’s Board made a number of recommendations including instructing the council to share information better.

Graham Bartlett, then chairman of the safeguarding board, said the board was “asking for assurance from organisations in Brighton and Hove about the changes they have made” since Steffan’s death.

He said: “This report highlights a number of differing perspectives between Brighton and Hove City Council and the residential therapeutic unit [where Steffan lived] and the absence of negotiated consensus in a number of areas impacting on him.”

The board said it would be monitoring the council’s progress as a result of the report.

In July West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield also made a ruling in a bid to prevent further deaths following an inquest into Steffan’s.

Ms Schofield highlighted concerns about the sharing of information between Brighton and Hove children’s services and foster carers.

The coroner said she would be asking Ofsted and national safeguarding chiefs to ensure the proper procedures were followed.

Ms Schofield said: “There does appear to be a national problem with foster carers not being provided with full paperwork by local authorities before taking on children.”