Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mrs B’s complaint about the way the Council has dealt with her housing benefit claim. This is because she has told us she has used her right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs B, complaint about the way the Council has dealt with her housing benefit claim. Mrs B told us she is suffering anxiety and stress, her debts and rent arrears are growing and she fears her family will become homeless.

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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. 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)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the information Mrs B provided and spoken to her and her husband by telephone.

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What I found

7. Mrs B told us the Council stopped paying housing benefit in May 2017 but did not tell her. She says a few months later her landlord told her he was not receiving housing benefit payments from the Council. Mrs B says, after her intervention, the Council wrote to her in August 2017 about her husband’s work and asking for more details. Mrs B says the information in the Council’s letter was not correct. Mrs B says, as well as stopping her housing benefit, the Council said it had overpaid over £15,000 housing benefit.
8. Mrs B says, following an appointment with a council officer, the Council started making housing benefit payments again and reduced the overpayment it said it had made.
9. Mrs B told us the Council could not explain to us how it had worked out the overpayment. She says the Council again suspended housing benefit payments at the beginning of 2019 without any explanation. She told us she had tried to contact the Council on different occasions but the Council’s officers provided different information each time. Eventually she says the Council told her that her husband’s income had increased.
10. Mrs B says she has appealed against the Council’s decision. She told us she is receiving housing benefit payments but for a very small amount which covers only a fraction of her rent. She understands the appeal process can take as long as seven months but, while she is waiting, her rent arrears are increasing.
11. The central issue in this case is the amount of housing benefit to which Mrs B is entitled. It was reasonable to expect her to use her right of appeal to the first Tier Tribunal as this is the method the law provides for people to challenge council decisions on their housing benefit entitlement and whether an overpayment is recoverable. The Tribunal has the relevant powers and expertise to consider appeals. Mrs B has told us she has appealed. This means we cannot investigate her complaint.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs B has told us she has used her right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman