Summary: The Ombudsman found fault by the Council on Miss F’s complaint about the way it handled her housing benefit and council tax reduction claims. It wrongly told her she could appeal a suspension decision. It failed to provide a copy of a letter it sent in response to her appeal request. It delayed dealing with her request to appeal its decision to end her claims by 4 months. It failed to act on a separate appeal to add her baby to the household. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Miss F complains the Council:
1. Wrongly suspended her claims for housing benefit and council tax reduction on several occasions, despite her providing all information and evidence requested;
2. Wrongly advised her to apply for Universal Credit;
3. Did not reinstate and adjust her council tax reduction claim to the rates she received before the suspension, causing arrears;
4. Failed to respond to her and her landlord’s contact about her claims; and
5. Failed to process her appeal requests against its decisions.
2. As a result, she suffered stress, which affected her health, she received a notice seeking possession from her landlord, has contact from bailiffs about council tax arrears, and had the inconvenience and frustration of spending a considerable amount of time dealing with the Council trying to resolve the problems.

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What I have investigated

3. I have not investigated the following of Miss F’s complaints:

• The Council’s actions before January 2018. The paragraph at the end of this draft explains why; and
• Complaint c).

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
7. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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Housing benefit appeals

8. A claimant can dispute a housing benefit decision within one month of the date of the decision. They can ask a council to reconsider it or, say they want to go straight to appeal.
9. If the claimant wants to go straight to appeal, the council will still reconsider its decision before passing the appeal to the tribunal. If it does not change its decision, it will send the appeal directly to the tribunal without the need for the claimant to submit a new appeal.
10. We expect councils to refer appeals to the tribunal within one month unless there is a very god reason for not doing so. The Tribunal Procedure (First-Tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber) Rules 2008 expect a council to assist a tribunal in the overriding aim of dealing with cases fairly and justly to avoid delays. (rule 2(4))

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered all the information Miss F provided, the notes I made of our telephone conversation, and the Council’s response to my enquiries, a copy of which I sent her. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Miss F and the Council. I considered their responses.

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What I found

12. Miss F is a single mother of 3 children aged between 4 years and 16 years old. She has health problems which means regular visits to hospital. She is self-employed but has a low income.
13. She complains about the way the Council dealt with her applications for housing benefit and council tax reduction (CTR). She says the Council:

• forced her to claim Universal Credit when she did not need to do so;
• suspended her benefits when she had another child as it affected her tax credits;
• failed to restore the benefits at the same rate as they were paid before suspensions and terminations; and
• ignored correspondence from her and her landlord, including requests for appeals.

14. The Council says Miss F was self-employed from 2014.
15. The following are key dates:

2018

• 17.2: The Council sent her a housing benefit and CTR award letter following a review.
• 2.3: It discovered she had another baby and asked to see the birth certificate. As she failed to provide it, the Council did not add the baby to her household. Miss F maintains she sent all the information it asked of her.
• 2.4: The Council sent her a housing benefit award letter. This reflected a change in rent. It explained how to appeal the decision.
• 15.6: It suspended benefit pending a review of her income as this had not happened since 2015. The letter asked her income details for the last financial year but, if unavailable, she was asked to complete a self-employed declaration, a questionnaire, and send 2 months full bank statements. It said if she did not provide it within one calendar month, it would suspend her housing benefit claim.
• 27.6: The Council issued a court summons for council tax arrears for 2017/18 and 2018/19 (arrears £522.89 including court costs).
• 29.6: The Council responded to her complaint sent earlier that month about council tax. This was about it not taking account of 2 payments she had made.
• 17.7: The Council cancelled housing benefit and CTR because Miss F failed to reply to the request for information.
• 18.7: When Miss F returned the completed self-employed questionnaire confirming her income, it reinstated her benefits.
• 19.7: Council records show Miss F declared her income and advised about ongoing sickness. This meant it revised her claim again. The Council sent her an award letter for her housing benefit and CTR claims. This again referred to appeal rights.

2019

• 26.2: The Council added her youngest child to the household backdated from 2016. It accepted it failed to action an appeal she sent in February 2017 about not adding the baby to the household. The Council sent her a housing benefit and CTR award letter after a review. This resulted in an underpayment of benefit to her because of the change in her household makeup. It again explained her appeal rights. An underpayment is where too little benefit is paid to a claimant.
• 1.7: The Council asked for new information from Miss F about her self-employed income for review. It asked for income details for the last financial year, for her to complete a declaration, and provide bank statements for the last 2 months. She had one calendar month to send the information.
• 31.7: The Council wrote to Miss F saying her application for housing benefit and CTR were suspended because of ‘change of circumstances’ from 15 July. This was because she had not supplied the information asked for about her self-employment. It explained what to do to continue claiming within one calendar month and explained her appeal rights.
• 3.8: Miss F sent information about her income but, this was for 2018.
• 5.8: The Council asked her for information about her income for 2019. The letter told her what she needed to send. The letter also explained her earnings over the years were less than the government expected her to live on. It said she would need to make a claim for Universal Credit.
• 29.8: Miss F sent proof of income and asked to appeal the decision
• 2.9: The Council told Miss F as she failed to provide relevant information, it ended her claim from 15 July for CTR and housing benefit. It advised her to claim Universal Credit. The letter set out her rights to appeal this decision.
• 16.9: Miss F sent the Council her appeal. This said she wanted to appeal as she uploaded the documents asked for. The Council could not send a copy of the response it says it sent her.
• 17.9: Miss F disputed the claim she sent insufficient information.
• 8.10: She applied for Universal Credit as by now, she was 4 months in rent arrears.
• 13.11: The Council told Miss F to apply for CTR due to her claiming Universal Credit.
• 2.12: The Council responded to her request for an update by saying she had 5 online applications ongoing which she had failed to submit. She was told how to upload these.
• 20.12: Miss F made a formal complaint.

2020

• 7.1: The Council told her it awarded her CTR and explained her appeal rights.
• 9.1: Miss F’s landlord wrote to her saying her rent was in arrears by £3,291.90. The letter served her with a notice of seeking possession of her home.
• 17.2: Her landlord asked the Council to revise its decision of 2 September 2019; and
• 20.2: The Council revised its decision of 2 September 2019. It awarded full housing benefit and CTR from 15 July to 8 October 2019 (14 October for CTR). Its notification letter told her of her appeal rights. The Council also awarded her transitional housing payment from 8-22 October. This notification also told her of her appeal rights.

Complaint a): wrongful suspension of claims

16. The first suspension took place in June 2018. The Council ended her claim the following month when she failed to provide information requested. When she provided it, the Council reinstated her claim the following day.
17. I found no fault on this complaint. The Council was entitled to request the information and there is no evidence of Miss F providing it within the one calendar month deadline. When she did provide it, the Council promptly reinstated her benefits.
18. The second suspension took place in July 2019. The evidence I have shows the Council asked her to provide information on 1 July within one calendar month. The Council suspended her benefits at the end of the month.
19. When it suspended them, the Council said she had the right to appeal the decision. This is incorrect. There is no right of appeal against a suspension decision. This is fault.
20. At the start of September, the Council told her it had ended her benefits from July. Two weeks later she wrote saying she wanted to appeal the decision. There is no evidence showing what action the Council took on this request. It was only after the intervention of her landlord that the Council reviewed the decision and reinstated her benefits. It did this in January 2020, four months after her request. The landlord intervened because of the build-up of rent arrears which resulted in the service of a notice of seeking possession on Miss F. I consider this delay amounts to fault.
21. I am satisfied the identified fault caused Miss F avoidable injustice. This is because it caused her distress. It raised her expectation she could appeal the suspension decision when she could not. The delay dealing with her September 2019 appeal request directly contributed to the rent arrears which caused her landlord to serve the notice seeking possession. This understandably caused her stress, frustration, and inconvenience.

Complaint b): Wrongly advised her to apply for Universal Credit

22. The Council told Miss F in August 2019 she needed to make a claim for this benefit because she had consistently sent information about her self-employed income over the years showing she had less income than the government expects people to live on. If her combined income was less than this amount, she would need to claim this benefit.
23. I found no fault on this complaint. The evidence shows the Council had concerns about the level of income Miss F had to live on. Miss F could have taken independent advice before applying for this benefit. This is a benefit that is gradually replacing housing benefit anyway for claimants by 2024. Claimants can stay on housing benefit, for example, unless there is a change of circumstances. Miss F had a baby which was a change of circumstances.

Complaint d): Failed to respond to her and her landlord’s contact about her claims

24. Apart from the failure to promptly respond to her appeal request made in September 2019, which I mention above, I am satisfied the Council responded to correspondence from Miss F and her landlord. With that exception, I found no fault on this complaint.
25. The Council failed to provide a copy of the response it says it sent her in September 2019 following her request for an appeal. This is fault.

Complaint e): Failed to process her appeal requests against its decisions

26. Miss F asked to appeal the decision the Council made to suspend her benefits in July 2019. She had asked to appeal it because the decision letter from the Council said she had the right of appeal. As noted, this was incorrect. As a result, Miss F was put to the time and trouble of making an appeal. I saw no evidence of the Council writing to correct its error and explain why it could not process her request. This is fault.
27. As also noted above, I am satisfied the Council failed to promptly act on her appeal request made in September 2019.
28. The Council accepted it failed to action her appeal in 2017 about it not adding her baby to her household. I consider this was an ongoing failure amounting to fault. This caused her avoidable injustice. The underpayment this decision created when it did finally add the child could have been credited to her account earlier. The underpayment was more than £500 housing benefit and just over £160 CTR.

Agreed action

29. I considered our guidance on remedies.
30. The Council will, within 4 weeks of the final decision on this complaint, carry out the following:
1. Send Miss F a written apology for: wrongly telling her she could appeal the suspension decision; not correcting that advice when she made her appeal against it; delaying processing her appeal request against the decision to end her benefits; not providing a copy of a letter it claimed it sent to her in response; failing to deal at all with her appeal against its decision not to add her child to the household.
2. Act to ensure suspension letters do not contain incorrect information about appeal rights.
3. Take action to prevent the delay that took place dealing with her request to appeal its termination of benefit decision from happening on future cases.
4. Pay Miss F £300 for the distress the identified fault caused.
31. In response to my draft decision, the Council confirmed it already reviewed why it failed to act on her appeal against its decision not to add her child to the household. It explained this was because the document was not directed to the appeals team. It rectified this, confirming this error has not been repeated.

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Final decision

32. The Ombudsman found fault on Miss F’s complaint against the Council. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

33. I did not investigate the following:

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman