Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information the Council provided to the complainant about her housing benefit. This is because there is insufficient evidence of injustice and because it is a late complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council failed to tell her to claim help with her rent through Universal Credit and, as a result, she has rent arrears. Ms X wants the Council to pay the arrears.

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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. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I considered rules relating to UC. I invited Ms X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Universal credit and housing costs

5. Most people claim help with their rent through UC. Some people, in specified accommodation, can claim housing benefit instead.
6. The rules say UC claimants must report all changes in their circumstances to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This includes telling the DWP when you change address.

What happened

7. Ms X was receiving UC. She was also getting housing benefit because she was in supported accommodation. In July 2019 she told the Council she was moving. The Council told her she would continue to get housing benefit because she was staying within the borough. A few days later the Council sent an email asking for the new tenancy agreement and telling Ms X she needed to complete a change of circumstance form and tell the DWP she was moving.
8. The move was delayed until 25 July. In the interim there were further email exchanges and Ms X supplied her tenancy agreement. By 15 August the Council had everything it needed to process the change of circumstance. On 11 September it told Ms X she was ineligible for housing benefit because her new home was not one of the specified types of accommodation. The Council explained that help with her rent needed to come via UC.
9. Ms X has received help with housing costs from UC from 19 August. Ms X did not receive help with her rent from 25 July to 18 August. Ms X has rent arrears. Ms X says the Council failed to tell her to claim help through UC so should pay the rent arrears.

Assessment

10. The Council gave the wrong advice in July 2019 and wrongly told Ms X she would continue to get housing benefit. However, this has not caused an injustice that requires an investigation. This is because, regardless of what the Council did or did not tell Ms X, she had a duty to tell the DWP she was moving. It would then have been the DWP’s responsibility to work out if Ms X was eligible for help with housing costs via UC and her date of claim for housing costs would have been protected from when she reported her new address. This duty, to tell the DWP, stood despite what she was told by the Council. If Ms X had told the DWP, in advance, or soon after the move, then she would have received help with housing costs from the date of her move or from the date she reported the move. If Ms X thinks the DWP has failed to pay her housing costs correctly, from the date she reported the change, then that is an issue she needs to raise with the DWP.
11. I also will not start an investigation because this is a late complaint. Ms X has known she cannot get housing benefit since September 2019 and she was signposted to the LGO in November 2019. But, she did not complain to us until December 2020. I have not seen any good reason for Ms X to delay her complaint by more than a year.

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Final decision

12. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice and because this is a late complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman