Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about advice she received in 2014 and overpayments of housing benefit and council tax support. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to exercise his discretion and now investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms B, says the Council gave her incorrect advice about housing benefit and council tax support claims in 2014. Ms B says it took the Council until 2016 to correct her accounts, by which time she had been overpaid thousands of pounds in benefits she must now repay. Ms B says she has suffered financial loss and she lives in fear of the Council’s demands for repayment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered the information Ms B provided when she made her complaint and I have considered the Ombudsman’s role and powers. I sent a draft decision to Ms B and considered the comments she made in reply before I made my final decision.

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What I found

8. Ms B says the Council gave incorrect advice in 2014, corrected the advice in 2016 and her complaint has been ongoing from that point. This complaint is late, as the events Ms B complains about happened more than 12 months ago. The Ombudsman cannot normally investigate late complaints, unless there are good reasons to exercise discretion.
9. I do not consider there are good reasons to now investigate this late complaint. This is because Ms B has known about the issues she complains about for more than 12 months and could have complained sooner. Ms B has explained that during this time there were serious domestic matters that prevented her from complaining. However, Ms B has used her right of appeal to a tribunal and the tribunal judge has considered the Council’s benefit decisions. The Ombudsman cannot investigate a complaint where the complainant has used their right of appeal to a tribunal, even if the complaint is raised within 12 months.
10. If Ms B has complaints about ongoing recovery of the benefit overpayments, she will need to raise these with the Council in the first instance. This is because the law says councils must normally have the opportunity to respond to a complaint under its own complaints procedure before the Ombudsman can investigate.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion and now investigate.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman