Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about a housing benefit overpayment. This is because the Council has decided Mr X does not have to repay the money. In addition, the complainant could have appealed to the tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about a housing benefit overpayment which he does not think he should have to repay.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 an investigation if we believe the Council has already provided a fair response. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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)
4. 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

5. I read the complaint and found out that the Council has cancelled the overpayment. This happened after Mr X complained to the Ombudsman but before we had taken any action. I invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Housing benefit disputes

6. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask for a review or appeal to the tribunal. If they have a review, and are unhappy with the decision, they can appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong.

What happened

7. In January the Council asked Mr X to repay a housing benefit overpayment of £363. The Council started to recover the overpayment by making deductions from Mr X’s housing benefit.
8. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in June. He explained why he thought he should not have to repay the overpayment and said he wanted the Council to cancel it.
9. In July Mr X sought advice from a law centre. The law centre contacted the Council. The Council considered the information provided by the law centre and decided not to pursue recovery of the overpayment. The Council waived the overpayment and refunded the £199 it had already recovered from Mr X.

Assessment

10. I will not start an investigation because the Council has written off the overpayment and refunded the amount it had deducted from Mr X.
11. I also will not start an investigation because Mr X could have used his review and appeal rights within one month of getting the overpayment decision. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have appealed because the tribunal is the appropriate body to consider housing benefit disputes.

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Final decision

12. I will not start an investigation because the Council has cancelled the overpayment and because Mr X could have used his appeal rights.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman