Summary: Ms B complains that the Council has mishandled her housing benefit claim including losing her documents, carrying out an unnecessary review and delaying in releasing payments. The Ombudsman finds no fault on the Council’s part.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains that the Council has mishandled her housing benefit claim. She says it:
• Lost documents she provided;
• carried out an unnecessary review of her claim;
• delayed in releasing payments causing her to fall into rent arrears and put her tenancy at risk;
• failed to inform her of the reasons for the delay; and
• failed to inform her about payments and her entitlements.

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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. 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)
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as housing associations. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information provided by Ms B, made enquiries of the Council and considered its comments and the documents it provided.
5. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Key facts

6. Ms B is self-employed and works part-time. She has a dependent child and lives in a housing association property.
7. In May 2018 the Council reviewed the income used to decide Ms B’s housing benefit (HB) and council tax reduction (CTR). It wrote asking her to provide evidence of her income and expenses within a month.
8. On 22 August 2018 the Council suspended Ms B’s HB claim because she had not responded. It wrote to her again asking for the evidence requested within a month, otherwise her claim would be terminated. On 7 September 2018 Ms B telephoned the Council saying she had received the letter but not the previous one. The officer agreed to resend the form.
9. On 24 September 2018 the Council terminated Ms B’s HB and CTR as it had not received the information requested. It wrote to Ms B confirming this. Later that day the completed self-employed earnings form was attached to Ms B’s electronic file.
10. On 4 October 2018 Ms B telephoned the Council about the decision to terminate her claim. She was advised to submit a written request for a review of the decision. She did so the same day. A senior benefits officer considered Ms B’s email on 10 October 2018 and decided HB and CTR should be reinstated from 31 July 2018.
11. Two weeks later the Council sent a further self-employed income review form to Ms B to complete. This was part of a data matching exercise conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
12. Ms B did not respond so, on 10 December 2018, the Council suspended her HB and CTR claim from 18 November 2018. It wrote to Ms B again and asked her to return the completed form within a month.
13. On 23 January 2019 the Council terminated Ms B’s claim for HB and CTR from 18 November 2019 because she had not responded. It wrote to Ms B informing her of this decision.
14. On 19 June 2019 Ms B telephoned the Council about her claim. She said she had visited the Council’s offices and returned the completed income review form in January 2019. The Council advised Ms B to apply for Universal Credit to help with her housing costs as her HB claim had been terminated.
15. Ms B submitted a reconsideration request and a formal complaint about the Council’s decision to terminate her claim on 24 June 2019. The Council responded to Ms B’s complaint at stage 1 of its complaints procedure on 4 July 2019.
16. On 29 July 2019 Ms B sent an email to the Council attaching a completed income form signed on 22 July 2019.
17. On 2 August 2019 a senior benefits officer considered Ms B’s reconsideration request and upheld the decision to terminate her claim. This was partly because Ms B had not contacted the Council between January and June 2019. The officer could find no record of the visit Ms B said she had made to the Council’s offices in January 2019 or the form she claimed to have handed in. Nor could she find any evidence of any telephone calls between January and June 2019. The officer wrote to Ms B explaining her decision and advised that, if Ms B considered the decision to be wrong, she should write to the Council within a month. Ms B telephoned the Council the same day saying it had lost her form so she was going to appeal.
18. Ms B escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure on 5 August 2019. She also applied for discretionary housing payments (DHPs) because she had fallen into rent arrears because she was not receiving benefits.
19. The Council sent a stage 2 response to Ms B on 23 August 2019. It said the two reviews of Ms B’s claim in quick succession were administered correctly but accepted this may have caused confusion. It confirmed HB and CTR would be reinstated with effect from 18 November 2018.
20. On 27 August 2019 the Council wrote to Ms B refusing her request for DHPs because her HB claim had been reinstated and a payment issued that would clear her rent arrears. The Council paid £4693.20 direct to Ms B’s landlord to cover rent for the period 19 November 2018 to 25 August 2019 and a further payment of £469.32 to cover the period 26 August 2019 to 22 September 2019.
21. Meantime, the landlord had issued possession proceedings because of Ms B’s rent arrears. On 29 August 2019 the court refused the claim because the HB payment had now cleared the arrears.
22. On 3 September 2019 the Council awarded a hardship payment of £2620.35 to clear Ms B’s council tax arrears together with an award of £5.83 per week from 1 April 2019 to 29 September 2019.

Analysis

Unnecessary review of Ms B’s claim

23. The second income review in October 2018 was prompted by a data matching exercise conducted by the DWP which provided councils with a list of all claims where the claimant was self-employed and their income had not been reviewed in the last year. The Council received the list on 7 September 2018. At this time the income used to determine Ms B’s entitlement had not been updated for over a year. The Council had written to her in May and August 2018 asking her to complete an up-to-date self-employed income form but the completed form was not received until 24 September 2019 after the DWP’s list was received.
24. Details of all cases reviewed as part of this exercise were held on a central spreadsheet rather than on individual files and individual case files were not checked before review forms were issued. So, the Council was unaware Ms B’s claim had only recently been reviewed.
25. I do not criticise the Council for carrying out the second review because it was acting on information received from the DWP. I accept this caused Ms B confusion. But she should have contacted the Council to query why it had sent her a second form. As she did not do so, the Council was unaware of the issue.

Loss of documents

26. Ms B says she visited the Council’s offices on 21 January 2019 and returned the completed self-employed income review form. She says the Council lost the form.
27. There is conflicting evidence about what happened. Ms B says she arrived at 8.45 am and spoke to a female member of staff who looked at her forms, advised her about some parts she had missed and lent her a calculator. She then took the documents when they were completed. Ms B says she was told the Council would contact her if any further information was needed. She later received a letter stating her HB and CTR may be terminated but “if you have sent the following information then ignore this letter”. Ms B says she telephoned the Council on 28 January 2019 to check the information had been received and spoke to an officer who confirmed she had the documents but there were two dates on the form: the first she could not read because it was scribbled out; and the second date was 26 January 2019. Ms B says the adviser told her to ignore the letter.
28. Ms B says she telephoned the Council again on 19 June 2019 and the officer told her the information she had submitted had been lost and agreed to send her another form. The Council's notes of the conversation state Ms B told the officer she went to Reception on 23 January 2019 and met a female member of staff who told her there were two dates on the form and the first date had been scribbled out. The notes do not state that the officer told her the forms had been lost.
29. Ms B telephoned the Council’s offices again the following day and was told there was no record of her handing in the review form and supporting documents and no record of any telephone call in January 2019.
30. The Council says it cannot find any evidence of Ms B’s visit in January 2019 or of the form she says she handed in. It also found no record of Ms B telephoning in January 2019. It says there are no records of Ms B telephoning or visiting its offices to follow up the matter prior to 19 June 2019 despite receiving numerous rent statements and council tax bills showing that HB and CTR were not being paid.
31. The Council wrote to Ms B on 2 August 2019 stating, “I have noted your comments regarding your visit to the reception in January 2019, however there is no trace of this visit. Based on the information you have given regarding your visit I believe that you may be getting confused with your visit made in September 2018”.
32. On 4 October 2018 Ms B had sent an email to the Council after her HB was suspended. She said she had visited the Council’s offices on 21 September at 8.30 am and delivered the documents. She said she then telephoned on 4 October 2018 and spoke to an officer who told her there were two date stamps on the file: one for 24 September and the other date couldn’t be read because it had been stamped over. This is strikingly similar to what Ms B said during the telephone conversation on 19 June 2019.
33. On a balance of probabilities, I prefer the Council’s version of events because: Ms B’s account of her visit in January 2019 is very similar to that of her visit in October 2018; the Council has no evidence of the visit or of receiving the form Ms B says she submitted; and the Council has no record of any telephone calls with Ms B in January 2019. I do not therefore consider there is sufficient evidence to support Ms B’s version of events. For this reason, I do not uphold Ms B’s complaint that the Council lost her documents.

Delay in releasing payments/failure to inform Ms B of the reasons for the delay

34. Ms B’s claim was suspended and then terminated on more than one occasion because she failed to provide information requested despite the Council sending reminders. There are no grounds to criticise this. The Council was entitled to terminate the claim when the information was not provided.
35. When Ms B requested a review in October 2018, her claim was reviewed within six days and her benefits reinstated. So, there was no delay in making a payment.
36. Ms B submitted a further review request on 24 June 2019. The Council considered the request on 2 August 2019 but upheld its decision to terminate her claim. The regulations do not specify how long councils should take to reply to HB appeals but they must do so as soon as reasonably practicable. The Ombudsman’s view is that the Council should aim to process appeals within four weeks. In this case the Council took five and half weeks. So, this was not an excessive delay.
37. I am satisfied the Council kept Ms B informed. It sent her a letter each time her claim was suspended or terminated explaining why this action had been taken.
38. For the reasons set out above, I do not uphold this complaint.

Failure to inform Ms B about payments and her entitlements

39. I am satisfied the Council informed Ms B about payments and her entitlements. It sent decision letters providing a breakdown of her HB entitlement and her CTR entitlement each time a decision was made.
40. In its letter of 27 August 2019 the Council confirmed Ms B’s HB claim had been reinstated from 19 November 2018 and she had been awarded “full rent charge”. It stated that a payment of £5162.52 would be issued to her landlord. So, it was clear from this letter that full HB payment had been made backdated to 19 November 2018. The Council also sent a decision notice which confirmed how much HB Ms B would receive, how this had been calculated and when payments started. The Council also sent with the letter a breakdown of Ms B’s CTR.
41. I do not therefore uphold this complaint.

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Final decision

42. I do not uphold Ms B’s complaint.
43. I have completed my investigation on this basis.

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Parts of the complaint I did not investigate

44. The Ombudsman cannot consider Ms B’s complaint that her housing officer failed to keep her informed about her rent arrears or her complaint about the management of her rent account. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint because the housing association does not fall within our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman