Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about subsistence payments the Council made to the complainant. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains the Council underpaid asylum allowance payments due to her from March 2022 to July 2025. Miss B also complains about an unpaid asylum allowance over a 16-week period from August 2025. Miss B says the Council refused to investigate the matter under its complaints procedure but instead choose to deal with the matter as a service request. Miss B claims the situation has caused her financial harm for more than three years. As an outcome Miss B wants the Council to backdate the payments from March 2022 at the rates set by the Home Office.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss B complained to the Council about an underpayment and unpaid asylum allowance she said the Council was responsible for.
6. The Council responded to the complaint in November 0225 and said its records showed Miss B had pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme. It said the payments it had made to her were discretionary subsistence payments. It confirmed it paid this money to a third-party organisation which in turn would pay Miss B.
7. The Council confirmed it had exercised discretion to increase the payment and backdate this to April 2024. People with pre-settled status such as Miss B can access public funds (claim welfare benefits).
8. We will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. Our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. On the evidence available, the subsistence payments the Council made to Miss B are discretionary payments and not asylum seeker payments as set by government.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman