Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse her application for a COVID-19 small business grant. This is because the complaint is late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains about the Council’s decision to refuse her application for a small business grant in May 2020.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Background

5. Mrs X applied for a small business grant from the Council, as her business was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020. She disputes the Council’s decision to refuse her application and says the Council has misunderstood and misinterpreted evidence regarding occupation of her business premises.

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My assessment

6. The Council refused Mrs X’s application on 6 May 2020 but Mrs X did not complain to us until 1 December 2021. Her complaint is therefore late.
7. I have considered Mrs X’s comments about the way the Council handled her challenge to its decision and delayed in providing a formal complaint response but I do not consider these provide good reasons to exercise our discretion to disapply our time limit. This is because the Council issued its final response on 9 June 2021 and the response referred her to us and clearly set out our time limit.
8. The Council’s letter also clarified that our time limit started from the date of the actions complained about and not the date of its final response. Mrs X was therefore aware that her complaint was already technically outside our time limit but then waited a further six months to bring the matter to us. In the circumstances I consider it would have been reasonable for Mrs X to complain to us sooner and see no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate the complaint now.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman