Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a Housing Benefit overpayment decision and council tax discount. This is because he has already appealed to a tribunal about the overpayment, and he can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal about the council tax discount. There is also not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice to warrant investigating the remaining matters separately.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s Housing Benefit (HB) overpayment decision. He says the Council should have checked with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) first before issuing its decision.
2. Mr X says the Council failed to apply a council tax discount in line with the relevant regulations.
3. He also complains about the Council’s overall complaint handling and complaint procedures, its poor record keeping and its repeated request for documents.
4. Mr X says the Council ignored a letter from the DWP and his Universal Credit (UC) journal.
5. Mr X said the Council breached its duties under the Equality Act 2010.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

6. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
7. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
8. The Social Entitlement Chamber (also known as the Social Security Appeal Tribunal) is a tribunal that considers housing benefit appeals. (The Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal)
9. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
10. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
11. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

12. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
13. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

14. The Council wrote to Mr X in March 2025 to tell him that he had incurred a Housing Benefit and Council Tax support overpayment following a notification received from the DWP. The notification stated that he was not entitled to UC for the period from October 2019 to January 2020.
15. Mr X appealed and the Council upheld his appeal because the DWP had confirmed that its notification was inaccurate. The Council confirmed that the overpayments were reversed.
16. However, Mr X took the matter to the Tribunal. I therefore cannot investigate this part of his complaint because it has already been considered by a Tribunal.
17. Mr X says the Council failed to apply a council tax discount. I cannot investigate this part of his complaint because Mr X can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal and it is reasonable to expect him to use his appeal rights.
18. Mr X complains about the Council’s overall actions and complaint handling procedures in relation to his case. He said the Council repeatedly asked him for documents because it has poor record keeping. Mr X said a third-party company also rejected his complaint without authority.
19. He also said the Council ignored his UC journal and did not meet its Equality Act 2020 duties.
20. Whilst I note his frustration, I have not seen enough evidence of fault or significant injustice caused by the Council’s actions to warrant investigating the remaining matters separately from the substantive issue.
21. It is also not a good use of public resources to investigate how a Council handled a complaint about a matter if we cannot investigate the substantive issue of the complaint.

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Final decision

22. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has already appealed to a tribunal about the substantive issue in his complaint. Mr X can also appeal to the Valuation Tribunal in respect of the council tax discount. Furthermore, I have not found enough evidence of fault or significant injustice to justify investigating the remaining matters separately.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman