Salford City Council (19 003 439)

Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 09 Oct 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Ms B complained that the Council paid housing benefit to her tenant in error and then refused to refund the money. The Council has now paid Ms B so the complaint is resolved.

The complaint

  1. Ms B complains that Salford City Council (the Council) refused to refund a housing benefit payment, which it paid in error to Ms B’s tenant who was over eight weeks in arrears

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
  2. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I have considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. I have written to Ms B and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

Payments to the landlord

  1. Payments of housing benefit are usually paid to the tenant, who then pays the rent to the landlord. If the tenant is eight weeks or more in arrears with their rent, the law allows for payment to be made directly to the landlord unless it is in the overriding interests of the claimant or his family not to do so.

What happened

  1. Ms B is a landlord. On 21 February 2019 she informed the Council that her tenant was over eight weeks in arrears with her rent. She says the Council informed her that the next payment, due on 4 March 2019, would be suspended while the matter was investigated. Ms B provided a rent statement on 5 March 2019.
  2. Ms B received a payment on 1 April 2019 and contacted the Council to ask where the payment due on 4 March 2019 had gone. The Council said that due to an error it had gone to the tenant instead.
  3. Ms B complained to the Council. The Council replied on 9 April 2019: it agreed an error had been made and raised as a training issue with the person concerned. But it said it could not issue a duplicate payment and apologised. Ms B escalated the complaint. The Council replied a second time on 2 May 2019 saying it was not at fault because when it issued the payment not the tenant it had not yet received the rent statement and the tenant was disputing the arrears.
  4. Ms B then complained to the Ombudsman. We notified the Council in August 2-19 that we were investigating, and the Council said it was going to pay Ms B the missing payment on 9 September 2019. I asked Ms B to confirm if this resolved her complaint, but I have not received a reply.

Analysis

  1. The Council initially agreed it was an error to pay the tenant while it was investigating the situation. It should have paid Ms B an amount equivalent to the payment, at that point. It then said it had acted correctly, which was fault and only changed its mind after Ms B complained to us.
  2. But the Council has now paid the money to Ms B which puts matters right and resolves the complaint.

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Final decision

  1. I have completed my investigation as the action taken by the Council has resolved the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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