Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about her housing benefit and council tax. This is because much of the complaint is late. There were appeal rights available to Ms X and it was reasonable for her to use them. Fresh appeal rights will be available to Ms X if she disagrees with the Council’s most recent decision. There is no reason she should not use them.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s decisions regarding housing benefit and council tax. The Council has started recovery action for unpaid council tax.

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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. 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)
5. 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)
6. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered Ms X’s complaint to the Ombudsman and the information she provided. I also gave Ms X the opportunity to comment on a draft statement before reaching a final decision on her complaint.

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What I found

8. Ms X says that in November 2013, she split up with her partner and he moved out of the flat they shared. Ms X says the Council would not award a single person’s discount unless she could provide proof of her ex-partner’s new address. Ms X did not have this, so she continued to pay full council tax.
9. Ms X says she applied for housing benefit in January 2018, but her application was refused for “the wrong reason”. Ms X says an application for council tax support was also refused. A council officer visited Ms X’s home in July 2018. She says the Council accepted Ms X was the only person living there, but it then instructed enforcement agents to recover unpaid council tax. Ms X says she left her property because of this. Ms X wants the Council to recalculate her council tax bill and to pay the single person’s discount for the period after her ex-partner moved out.
10. The Council has recently responded to a complaint from Ms X. It has said that enforcement agents were instructed in January 2020, following a liability hearing at the magistrates’ court in October 2018. It has offered a payment plan which would allow Ms X to clear her arrears over the next ten months, The Council has said it will only offer a single person’s discount from 01 April 2017. If Ms X disagrees with the decision she can appeal. It has also said that it may be able to offer Ms X council tax support if she can provide information about her finances.
11. The Ombudsman normally expects people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. We look at each complaint individually, and on its merits, considering the circumstances of each case. But we do not exercise discretion to accept a late complaint unless there are good reasons to do so. I do not consider that to be the case here. I see no reason why Mrs X could not have complained much earlier about the Council’s decisions regarding her housing benefit, council tax, and the decision to seek a liability order. The exception at paragraph 3 therefore applies to much of her complaint.
12. But even if the complaint was not late, it is unlikely we would investigate. When a person can appeal a council’s decision to a tribunal, we normally expect a person to use those rights, unless it was, or is, unreasonable for them to do so. Decisions about housing benefit can be appealed to the tribunal referred to in paragraph 5. Decisions about council tax entitlement, liability, and discounts, can be appealed to a valuation tribunal as referred to in paragraph 6. The tribunals are expert, impartial bodies. They are the mechanisms established by Parliament for people wanting to challenge decisions about housing benefit and council tax. I see no reason Ms X could not have used her appeal rights.
13. The Council has said that if Ms X disagrees with its latest decision about her council tax and the single person’s discount, she can ask for a review. This would trigger the right to a fresh appeal to a valuation tribunal. The same rights will apply if Ms X is not happy with the Council’s decision about council tax support. As above, I see no reason Ms X should not use the appeal rights available to her. An investigation by the Ombudsman is not therefore appropriate.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because much of the complaint is late, and it was reasonable for Ms X to appeal to the respective tribunals. If Ms X is unhappy with the Council’s latest decisions, I see no reason she should not use the appeal rights available to her.

Investigator’s draft decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman