Durham County Council (19 007 649)

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

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 26 May 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: The Council failed to tell Mrs X she should claim universal credit not housing benefit. Mrs X missed out on six weeks of help with her housing costs. The Council will apologise to Mrs X and reimburse her the money she lost.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X complains the Council gave her wrong advice and did not give her a decision on her claim for housing benefit. Mrs X says that due to the Council’s fault she lost six weeks of housing payments.

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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. 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)
  3. 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 considered information from Mrs X and the Council.
  2. We have exercised discretion to investigate the complaint although the events happened more than 12 months ago. This is because Mrs X could not initially find the evidence she wanted to give the Council. The Council accepted the complaint in March 2019.
  3. Mrs X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of my decision. I considered their comments before I made a final decision.

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What I found

Universal credit and housing benefit

  1. Universal credit is gradually replacing housing benefit for people under pension age. When this happens, if someone needs help with housing costs, he or she needs to apply to the Department of Work and Pensions not the Council.
  2. Before 1 January 2018 there were two types of universal credit areas: gateway and full service.
  3. In gateway areas people could claim universal credit for housing costs if they were not unemployed or receiving disability benefits. The claimant also had to be under the age of 60 years and 6 months.
  4. For full services areas all claimants under pension age come under universal credit.
  5. On 1 January 2018 gateway areas ended and only full-service areas remained. If a claimant did not live in a full-service area, he or she needed to claim housing benefit for help with housing costs.
  6. A council must notify a claimant in writing of its decision on a housing benefit claim. It is does not award housing benefit it must give a reason for this. (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 reg 90 and schedule 9 part 4)
  7. The Council still deals with all applications for council tax reduction.

What happened

  1. In November 2017 Mrs X moved to the Council’s area. Mrs X works part time. She was under pension age but was older than 60 years and 6 months.
  2. On 13 December 2017 the town Mrs X now lived in became a full-service universal credit area. Not all areas of Durham became full-service areas at the same time.
  3. On 2 January 2018 Mrs X did some research to find out if she should claim universal credit or housing benefit for help with her rent. She says both the CAB and Government websites said she could not claim universal credit because of her age.
  4. Mrs X telephoned the Council the same day as she says she was filling in an online claim and it gave her no information about her eligibility. She says she asked if she should claim housing benefit. She says the officer told her it was it was all new, and it might take 6 weeks for the Council to investigate and give her a decision. The Council does not have a note of this telephone call.
  5. Mrs X completed the Council’s on-line claim form the same day. The form said it was a claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction. When she submitted it, a message came up telling her it was her official claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction.
  6. On the form Mrs X ticked the box to say she did not get universal credit. The form has a box for other information. In this Mrs X said according to the CAB calculator she was not entitled to universal credit due to her age.
  7. The form told Mrs X she must report changes to the Council straightaway, including changes to her rent.
  8. Information from the form, including the information Mrs X gave about universal credit, transferred to the Council’s running record for the claim. Any officer looking at the system could see this.
  9. Mrs X received another automated email response from the Council thanking her for her claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction.
  10. On 8 January 2018 Mrs X went to the Council to give it documents it wanted. The Council gave Mrs X a copy of its note of this. This is headed statement in relation to housing benefit and council tax reduction claim.
  11. On 16 January the Council gave Mrs X a decision on her claim for council tax reduction.
  12. On 13 February, six weeks after she made the claim, Mrs X telephoned the Council to ask what was happening to her claim for housing benefit. The Council told her she was not entitled to housing benefit and needed to make a claim for universal credit.
  13. Mrs X claimed universal credit for housing costs but the Department for Work and Pensions refused to backdate it. From 13 February 2018 Mrs X received £375 a month from universal credit towards her housing costs.
  14. On 18 February Mrs X wrote to the Council asking it to listen to the telephone call of 2 January. I have seen no evidence the Council did this.
  15. Mrs X wrote to the Council on 25 March 2018. On 4 April a Revenues Officer telephoned Mrs X. Mrs X told the Officer the Council gave her wrong advice about universal credit. The Officer said when she made the online claim, it would have told her she was not entitled to housing benefit and should claim universal credit. The Officer felt the fault lay with the CAB. Mrs X wrote again and said she did not intend to pursue the matter, but the Council must have a recording of her telephone conversation of 2 January. She said she was now in debt. The Council made a note that it would not take any further action. It did not listen to the recording of the telephone conversation.
  16. In March 2019 Mrs X found the printout from her claim which said she was applying for housing benefit and council tax reduction. She complained to the Council. The Council said it was not responsible if the CAB website gave incorrect information. It said when she made her claim its website told her she could not claim housing benefit and should make a claim for universal credit. It said its claim form did not ask her questions about her rent as it had advised her to claim universal credit. It said it did not send her a letter refusing housing benefit as there was no claim for housing benefit.
  17. The Council said it no longer had a recording of her telephone call of 2 January 2018. It said the advisor she saw on 8 January 2018 should have told her claim was only for council tax reduction. It said it should have crossed out housing benefit on its receipt and it had not. It apologised for this.
  18. Mrs X replied on 9 May 2019 to say the online claim did not tell her to claim universal credit. The Council replied on 25 June. The writer said the Council’s website says if someone is working age, they must claim universal credit not housing benefit. She said the website has a link for universal credit. She said when she tried the benefit calculator used by Mrs X it told her to claim universal credit. She said the form Mrs X completed did not ask for any information about her rent. She found no fault with the Council or advice given by officers.
  19. Mrs X replied she had looked at the Councils current online claim form and it had changed from when she applied on 2 January 2018. She said in January 2018 it did not tell her to make a claim for universal credit. She reminded the Council the receipt from her online claim told her she had made a claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction. The Council did not change its view.
  20. I asked the Council what its website said when Mrs X applied in January 2018. It has provided me with a screen shot. This is headed benefit calculator and claim. It asks the user if they get universal credit. It says “Please note: if you answer yes to this question, your housing benefit entitlement will not be calculated and a housing benefit claim will not be accepted because housing costs are already included in universal credit”. “If you have made a universal credit claim and you are waiting to hear about it, click no”.
  21. The Council says it did not send Mrs X a decision on her housing benefit claim, as it advised her to claim universal credit. It says it did not record a claim for housing benefit for Mrs X.

Analysis

  1. The Council is right that it is not responsible for the content of the CAB website. However, Mrs X also approached the Council for advice.
  2. The Council did not take the opportunity to listen to Mrs X’s telephone call of 2 January although Mrs X asked it twice to do this. The Council no longer has the recording. I accept Mrs X did telephone and ask for advice, as Mrs X has shown she was trying to find out who she should make the claim to. I think it is more likely than not the Officer she spoke to did not tell her to claim universal credit.
  3. Even if Mrs X did not telephone the Council for advice, this would not change my view of her complaint. Mrs X told the Council in writing she could not claim universal credit due to her age. No-one from the Council contacted her to let her know this was wrong.
  4. Although the Council says its online claim form tells people to claim universal credit, this was not the case in January 2018. The screenshot provided shows it told people it would calculate housing benefit only for those not already getting universal credit. Mrs X did not get universal credit.
  5. The Council’s website sent two confirmations to Mrs X saying she had made a claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction. The Council accepted documents from her for her claim for housing benefit and council tax reduction. The Council is at fault for providing wrong information to Mrs X.
  6. The Council missed the opportunity to give the right information in January 2018. It could have told Mrs X it was not considering a claim for housing benefit when it gave her a decision on her council tax reduction. As the Council’s website said it would calculate housing benefit as she was not claiming universal credit, it should have sent her a decision refusing housing benefit and the reasons for this.
  7. The Council says Mrs X should have realised the Council had not accepted a claim for housing benefit because its form did not ask about her rent. I do not accept this. The Council cannot expect a claimant to know what questions should be on a claim for housing benefit. Moreover, it cannot expect the claimant to realise the lack of such questions means she is not eligible for housing benefit. It was the Council’s role to tell Mrs X she could not claim housing benefit. It did not do this. Instead, every piece of information the Council provided to Mrs X before 13 February 2018 indicated the Council had accepted a claim for housing benefit.
  8. The Council has caused injustice to Mrs X as she missed six weeks of housing costs; a total of £562.50.

Agreed action

  1. To put matters right for Mrs X within four weeks of my final decision the Council will apologise to her and pay her the £562.50 she missed out on.

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Final decision

  1. The Council is at fault and has caused injustice to Mrs X. The Council has agreed to provide a remedy. I have completed my investigation and closed the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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