Luton Borough Council (19 014 159)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Mar 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains that the Council unreasonably delayed pursuing her for a housing benefit overpayment. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Ms X complains that the Council unreasonably delayed pursuing her for a housing benefit overpayment.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.,
What I found
- Ms X says that she was embarrassed to find an attachment of earnings order from the Council sent to her employer for overpaid housing benefit.
- The Council says that the debt goes back to 2011/12 where an overpayment of housing benefit arose because she returned to work without notifying the Council.
- The Council says it was unaware of her change of address and had only recently discovered this through the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). It says it wrote to her in September 2019 about the debt and, in the absence of a reply, sought an Attachment of Earnings Order from her employer.
- The Council sent her a copy of the September letter and offered to set up an arrangement plan to recover the sum.
- In the absence of any evidence that Ms X notified the Council of her change of address or her change of circumstances that led to the overpayment, I conclude that there is not evidence of fault by the Council. The delay in pursuing the debt was not the result of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman