Summary: Miss X complains about the way the Council has handled recovering a housing benefit overpayment from 2013. She says this has caused inconvenience, cost her time and trouble, and affected her wellbeing and mental state. The Ombudsman does not find fault with the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Miss X, complains about the way the Council has handled recovering a housing benefit overpayment from 2013. She also complains that the Council did not respond to her questions about the bailiffs.
2. Miss X says this has caused inconvenience, cost her time and trouble, and affected her wellbeing and mental state.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated the Council’s actions in 2019. The final section of this statement contains my reasons for not investigating the rest of the complaint back to 2013.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered the information and documents provided by Miss X and the Council. I spoke to Miss X about her complaint. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on an earlier draft of this statement. I considered all comments before I reached a final decision.
8. I have considered the relevant legislation and regulations, set out below.

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What I found

What should have happened

9. Councils are responsible for administering housing benefits. People have a right to appeal most housing benefit decisions. The claimant can first ask the council to reconsider or review its decision. After a council has reviewed its decision there is then a right of appeal to the independent benefits tribunal called the ‘First-Tier Tribunal’.
10. A claimant must ask for a reconsideration and/or appeal within one month of the date of the decision. Councils can accept a late reconsideration, up to an absolute deadline of 13 months. A Tribunal Service Judge (not a council) considers late appeal requests.
11. Appealable decisions include all decisions on the amount of benefit and its calculation, treatment of income and capital, overpayments, and decisions about who to pay.
12. The Ombudsman cannot look directly at issues such as overpayment of housing benefit or recalculations of housing benefit. These can only be done by a tribunal. However, the Ombudsman can look at a council’s actions surrounding the issue complained about.
13. The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (‘the Regulations’) say that housing benefit overpayments are recoverable unless they were caused by official error and it was not reasonable for the claimant to have known they were being overpaid.
14. The law says councils can seek to recover debts up to six years from the date of the overpayment.

What happened

15. Miss X received housing benefit.
16. In 2013, Miss X told the Council she did not need housing benefit anymore because she was in full time employment and was not eligible. The Council paid a further housing benefit payment to Miss X.
17. The Council sent Miss X a letter saying how the overpayment had occurred. The next month, the Council sent Miss X an invoice for the overpayment.
18. Miss X complained to the Council that she had been overpaid. The Council responded, saying that she needed to repay the overpayment.
19. In 2015, the Council sent Miss X an invoice and two reminders.
20. In January 2019, the Council reviewed Miss X’s account and noticed she had a new address. The Council sent Miss X an invoice to her new address.
21. In March, Miss X complained to the Council. She questioned why the overpayment had only just been brought to her attention.
22. The Council responded, saying it sent an invoice to her new address before it took further enforcement action. It said it was Miss X’s responsibility to repay the overpayment.
23. Between April and May, Miss X complained to the Council a further three times. The Council responded each time. It said it had a responsibility to recover all of its debts. It said it was unfortunate that her case had not been reviewed more promptly. It acknowledged an extended gap in the recovery process. It also said it is the customer’s responsibility to make sure debts are paid when asked to do so. It said it can start the legal debt recovery process up to six years from the date of overpayment.
24. The Council passed Miss X’s debt to bailiffs.
25. Miss X then complained to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

Overpayment

26. Miss X complains about the way the Council has handled recovering a housing benefit overpayment from 2013. As I explain below, I will only consider the Council’s actions in 2019 because of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
27. The Regulations say that housing benefit overpayments are recoverable unless they were caused by official error and it was not reasonable for the claimant to have known they were being overpaid.
28. In this case, Miss X told the Council in 2013 that it had overpaid her. So, I find that Miss X knew from the start about the overpayment. The law says councils can seek to recover debts up to six years from the date of the overpayment. This means the Council is entitled to seek to recover Miss X’s overpayment.
29. In 2019, the Council found out that Miss X had a new address. It then took appropriate steps to contact Miss X and seek recovery of the overpayment. The Council was entitled to pass the debt to bailiffs to recover the debt given that, to date, Miss X has not repaid this debt.
30. For these reasons, I do not find the Council at fault.

Response to Miss X’s questions

31. Miss X complains that the Council did not respond to her questions about bailiffs.
32. I have seen the correspondence between Miss X and the Council, including the Council’s responses to Miss X’s numerous complaints. I have seen the Council’s responses to Miss X’s questions about bailiffs. I find that the Council has answered all of her questions.
33. I have also seen the correspondence between Miss X and the bailiffs, including the bailiffs’ responses to Miss X’s questions. I find that the bailiffs responded appropriately to all of Miss X’s questions.
34. For this reason, I do not find the Council at fault.

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Final decision

35. I have completed my investigation and I do not uphold Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no fault.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

36. The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints that are more than 12 months after the complainant first had knowledge of the problem, unless there are good reasons to do so.
37. In this case, Miss X told the Council about the overpayment in 2013. She complained to the Council in 2013. She did not ask for her complaint to be dealt with at the second stage of the Council’s complaints procedure. This indicates that either Miss X was satisfied with the Council’s response or she chose not to ask for her complaint to be reviewed for another reason.
38. If Miss X had taken her complaint to the next stage, she would have been signposted to the Ombudsman. At this point, we could have considered Miss X’s complaint.
39. Miss X did not approach the Ombudsman until six years after she first became aware of the issue.
40. Overall, I consider that reasonable opportunities existed for Miss X to have pursued this matter in a more timely fashion, and within the time limits laid down in law. As such, I have decided there are no good reasons to exercise the Ombudsman’s discretion to investigate this complaint back to 2013.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman