London Borough of Hackney (19 011 850)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Dec 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint that the Council wrongly paid housing benefit to her tenant for a period in 2016. The complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds to investigate it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Mrs A, complains that the Council wrongly paid housing benefit to her tenant for a period in 2016.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 have considered what Mrs A has said in support of her complaint.
What I found
- Mrs A complains that the Council paid housing benefit to her tenant for a period in 2016. She says the Council should have paid the housing benefit directly to her as landlord. The tenant has not made up the shortfall, which amounts to £991.40.
- Mrs A complained to the Council in 2017. In response, the Council admitted fault in paying the tenant rather than Mrs A. However, it declined to take any further action on the matter because it was open to Mrs A to collect the shortfall from the tenant directly.
- Mrs A says her tenant has now left the property without paying her the money owed. She has raised the matter with the Council again and complains that it has failed to respond.
- The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint because it is late. Late complaints are where someone takes more than 12 months to complaint to the Ombudsman. Mrs A has been aware of the issue since 2016 and of the Council’s response since 2017 and her complaint to the Ombudsman is late. The Ombudsman has the discretion to consider late complaints where it is appropriate to do so. There are insufficient grounds to do so in this case.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds to investigate it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman