London Borough of Hillingdon (19 005 450)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Aug 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council assessed his council tax reduction. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because he had a right of appeal to a tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the way the Council assessed his council tax reduction.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the complainant's and Council's comments. The complainant has been given the opportunity to comment before a final decision has been made.
What I found
- Mr X says that the Council sent him a number of council tax bills and he disputes the way it assessed his bonus.
- Any dispute about housing benefit or council tax reduction can be appealed to a tribunal. The Tribunal is an independent expert body and its decisions are binding on Councils. I see no reason why an appeal could not have been made.
- The Council says that it decided there was no entitlement to housing benefit from December 2018. However, it reviewed that decision in the light of evidence supplied by Mr X on 6, 11 and 28 December. The Council apologised for the late review of the evidence (due to annual leave over Christmas) and paid housing benefit and council tax reduction from January 2019.
- Whilst the receipt of a number of bills can be confusing, the Ombudsman would not be critical of this as changes in circumstance require new decisions.
- I am satisfied therefore that there are no grounds for investigation of this complaint.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there was a right of appeal to a tribunal and no evidence of significant fault causing injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman