Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council did not calculate the complainant’s housing benefit correctly. This is because the complainant could have used her appeal rights.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council has not calculated her housing benefit correctly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I read the complaint and the Council’s response. I considered some of the housing benefit decision letters and considered comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Housing benefit

6. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask for a review or appeal to the tribunal. If they have a review, and are unhappy with the decision, they can then appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong.

What happened

7. Ms X complained to the Council that it had not calculated her housing benefit correctly and she disputed a decision saying she must repay an overpayment of £633. Ms X did not use her appeal rights but submitted a complaint. Ms X particularly complained of the way the Council calculated her benefit in September and October 2019.
8. In response the Council accepted it had made an error in the overpayment calculation. It reduced the overpayment to £342 and gave Ms X fresh appeal rights. It also invited Ms X to provide further information about her income. Ms X provided further information in November and the Council again revised the decisions about her weekly benefit entitlement and the overpayment. The Council gave further appeal rights if Ms X disagreed with the revised decisions. The Council apologised and accepted that some of its actions had been confusing.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because Ms X could have used her appeal rights if she thought any of the housing benefit decisions, including the overpayment, were wrong. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to appeal because the tribunal is the appropriate body to consider disputes about housing benefit decisions. The tribunal has the power to change a housing benefit decision; the Ombudsman does not have that power. If someone wants to dispute a benefit decision they should use their review and appeal rights rather than the Council’s complaints procedure.
10. Ms X is now happy with the housing benefit calculations and does not wish to challenge them. However, she is dissatisfied with the time it took the Council to reach the correct decision. However, it is not a good use of public funds to investigate how a council handled an issue when we are not investigating the main issue (the housing benefit decisions). In addition, it was not until November that Ms X provided the Council with the additional information about her income. The time taken by the Council to correctly assess the housing benefit was not so long that it represents fault that requires an investigation.

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Final decision

11. I will not start an investigation because Ms X could have used her appeal rights.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman