London Borough of Waltham Forest (19 011 751)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 Dec 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to recover an overpayment of housing benefit. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because she had the right of appeal to a tribunal and the matter is out of time.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to recover an overpayment of housing benefit.
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 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the complainant's and Council's comments. The complainant has commented on the draft decision.
What I found
- Ms X is upset by the way the Council has pursued recovery of a housing benefit overpayment. She disputes the amount owed.
- The Council says that she has written to them eleven times since the overpayment decision in 2016 and the Council responded about the same matter from December 2016 onwards. It refuses to correspond any further about this.
- Any dispute about the right to recover the overpayment or the amount to be recovered was a matter for the tribunal at the time (in 2016). 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.
- Further, Ms X has been aware of the matter since 2016 and I see no reason why a complaint could not have been made to this office within12 months of 2016. The complaint is therefore out of time.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the matter is out of time and could have been appealed to a tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman