Summary: The Council wrongly suspended Ms B’s housing benefit which caused her to fall into rent arrears. It also failed to deal with her appeal against a housing benefit decision. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Ms B, deal with her appeal and take action to prevent similar failings in future.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains that the Council:
• unreasonably suspended her housing benefit;
• delayed lifting the suspension;
• delayed sending her money she was owed;
• unlawfully recovered debt which had previously been written off; and
• has failed to deal with her request to appeal its decision to recover that debt.
2. Ms B says that as a result of the Council’s actions she fell into rent arrears and suffered significant distress.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated the complaints detailed in four of the five bullet points in paragraph one above. The last section of this statement explains why I have not investigated the Council’s decision to recover debt which had previously been written off.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. 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)
6. 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)
7. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• discussed the issues with the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered any comments made.

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What I found

Housing benefit

9. Housing benefit guidance says:
• Where the Council decides to suspend housing benefit, the claimant should be informed in writing. The letter should state the date of and the reason for the suspension, together with what, if anything the claimant needs to do to resolve the situation.
• If a revised decision would result in an increase in entitlement, there is no need to consider suspension.
10. If a claimant appeals a housing benefit decision the council can reconsider it before passing it to the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal.
11. We expect councils to make decisions on claims within one month of the claimant providing any information reasonably required to make the decision.

Key events

12. In June 2019, Ms B asked the Council to review her housing benefit. She believed the Council had applied the shared bedroom Local Housing Allowance (LHA) when she was entitled to the one-bedroom rate.
13. The Council reviewed Ms B’s housing benefit just over three weeks later. Its records show that it considered Ms B was entitled to an increase in housing benefit and it calculated that she had been underpaid by around £15,000 for the period December 2016 to July 2019. The Council suspended Ms B’s housing benefit but did not tell her it had done so.
14. The Council asked Ms B to provide a signed letter from her landlord confirming up to date details of any rent arrears. Ms B wrote to the Council on 10 July and explained that she could not provide a signed letter from her landlord, but she enclosed evidence of the rent payments she made between August 2017 and July 2019.
15. The Council considered the evidence and wrote to Ms B again on 5 August. It accepted that she was unable to provide a signed letter from her landlord and asked Ms B to instead provide evidence of rent payments for the remaining period of her claim, between December 2016 and August 2017.
16. Ms B asked the Council to reinstate her benefits while she was waiting for her bank to provide this further evidence. She pointed out that her claim had been suspended because the Council had previously calculated her benefits incorrectly, and she had already provided proof of her rent payments for the last two years.
17. Ms B provided evidence of the rent payments she made between December 2016 and August 2017 on 12 August.
18. On 2 September, the Council wrote to Ms B confirming her entitlement to the one-bedroom LHA rate. It said that a credit would be sent to her bank account and it lifted the housing benefit suspension.
19. After receiving some new information, the Council decided that Ms B was only entitled to the one-bedroom LHA rate until July 2019. This meant that Ms B had been overpaid housing benefit of £727.70. The Council then discovered that it had paid the underpayment of housing benefit to the wrong bank account. It suspended Ms B’s housing benefit again while it checked that it was appropriate to re-issue the payment to Ms B. It lifted the suspension four days later.
20. The Council wrote to Ms B explaining that two overpayments of housing benefit of £3411.39 and £727.20 would be deducted from the £13,490.59 it owed Ms B in underpaid housing benefit. It said that it had received the payment back from the incorrect bank account and would pay £9352 into Ms B’s account. It released the payment on 19 September.
21. On 24 September, Ms B appealed the Council’s decision to recover the overpayment of £3411.39 which had been written off by the Council in 2017. The Council did not deal with Ms B’s appeal.

Analysis

22. Housing benefit guidance says that where the Council decides to suspend housing benefit, the claimant should be informed in writing. The Council did not do so when it suspended Ms B’s housing benefit on 5 July; this was fault. Ms B says she only found out her benefit had been suspended when she contacted the Council because she had not received the payment when it was due on 15 July.
23. The Council was wrong to suspend Ms B’s housing benefit on 5 July. Housing benefit guidance says that if a revised decision would result in an increase in entitlement, there is no need to consider suspension. The Council was aware that Ms B was entitled to more housing benefit and so it should not have suspended her claim. This was fault.
24. When the Council reviewed Ms B’s case on 5 August, it was aware that her entitlement to housing benefit had increased and that she had properly paid her rent for at least the last two years. The Council should have lifted the suspension. It did not do so; this was fault.
25. I do not consider the Council significantly delayed paying the underpayment of housing benefit to Ms B. It was right to check whether Ms B had any rent arrears before issuing the payment.
26. The Council did not deal with the appeal Ms B made in September. In the Council’s response to my enquiries, it said its letter of 17 September explains that as the claim had been revised, an appeal was no longer required. This is not the case. Ms B sent her appeal on 24 September; she was clearly appealing the decision to recover the overpayment of £3411.39, which she did not know about until she received the Council’s letter of 17 September. The Council failed to deal with Ms B’s appeal. This was fault.

Injustice

27. As a result of the Council wrongly suspending Ms B’s housing benefit, she was unable to pay her rent for around two months and went into arrears. I consider this caused Ms B significant distress. She had not been in arrears previously and her landlord was not aware that she was in receipt of housing benefit. Ms B was also frustrated by the Council’s failure to deal with her appeal.

Agreed action

28. Following my recommendation, the Council has dealt with the appeal Ms B made on 24 September 2019. It has reviewed its decision, written to Ms B explaining the outcome of the review and reinstated her right of appeal to the Social Entitlement Chamber.
29. The Council has also agreed that, within four weeks, it will apologise and make a payment of £200 to Ms B for the failings identified in this case.
30. Within eight weeks, the Council will provide evidence that it has highlighted the failings in this case to its officers to ensure they:
• properly deal with future appeals;
• notify claimants in writing when they decide to suspend benefits; and
• do not suspend benefits when a revised decision will result in an increase in entitlement.

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Final decision

31. I have completed my investigation and uphold Ms B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Ms B. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

32. I have not investigated Ms B’s claim that the Council unlawfully recovered a previously written off overpayment of housing benefit of £3411.39. This decision has a right of appeal to the Social Entitlement Chamber. As explained in paragraph five above, the Ombudsman will not normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. I consider it would be reasonable for Ms B to appeal to the Social Entitlement Chamber if she remains dissatisfied.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman