Summary: Ms X complained the Council took until March 2020 to correctly assess a housing benefit claim made in October 2016. Ms X says this delay led directly to her eviction in 2017. There is significant delay in this case which is fault. However, the benefit underpayment did not clear Ms X’s rent arrears and so it cannot be said that the eviction would not have taken place but for the Council’s fault.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to correctly assess her entitlement to housing benefit for several years even though she challenged the decision.
2. Ms X says this underpayment of housing benefit led directly to her eviction in October 2017.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with the complainant;
• sent my draft decision to both the Council and the complainant and taken account of their comments in reaching my final decision.

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What I found

6. Ms X has been claiming housing benefit since at least 2011. Her circumstances have changed during this period and so the amount of housing benefit she has been entitled to has varied. Ms X has consistently been in rent arrears since 2011 when her landlord first started court action in respect of rent arrears.
7. The Courts granted a suspended possession order to Ms X’s landlord in September 2011. This was conditional on Ms X paying her current rent plus a regular amount towards the arrears. Ms X’s rent arrears continued to increase and so the landlord took further action. Between November 2012 and November 2015 the Council applied to the Court three times for a warrant of eviction. Each time the Court suspended the eviction. This was sometimes because of issues with Ms X’s housing benefit claim which meant she had been underpaid. The suspension of the warrant of eviction was always conditional on Ms X paying the current rent plus an amount towards the arrears.
8. In October 2016, Ms X began studying at university. This meant that her financial situation changed considerably as she was in receipt of student grants and loans and also received help with childcare while she was studying. Ms X notified the Council of this change in circumstances and it reassessed her entitlement to housing benefit. Ms X had been receiving housing benefit of about £125 per week prior to being a student. After the reassessment her entitlement reduced to about £10 per week. The reassessment also resulted in a benefit overpayment of approximately £750.
9. Ms X says she knew this decision was not correct and so queried it with the Council. Throughout 2017, Ms X continued to query the housing benefit award with the Council. In June 2017, the landlord applied to the Courts for the fourth time for a warrant of eviction. In September Ms X wrote to the Council saying she did not agree with the latest review decision in respect of her housing benefit claim and asked it to look into it as a matter of urgency. Ms X requested the Council to disregard her student grant and parental learning allowance in full.
10. On 11 October 2017 a housing benefit revision was processed for the period from October 2016. This resulted in the Council identifying a benefit underpayment of £1111.50 because due to errors in how it had calculated Ms X’s income including her parental learning allowance. On 16 October Ms X contacted the Council again about the housing benefit award as she still believed it was incorrect.
11. On 20 October 2017 the fourth warrant of eviction was carried out and Ms X lost her tenancy. Ms X and her family moved into temporary accommodation as they were homeless.
12. Ms X continued to query her housing benefit entitlement. In January 2019 Ms X made a complaint via her local councillor about the problems with her housing benefit claim. She believed that her eviction was due to a shortfall in her housing benefit.
13. The Council disputed Ms X’s assertion that she had been underpaid housing benefit. Ms X continued to complain to the Council throughout 2019. A letter from the Council dated September 2019 explained that when Ms X became a full time student in October 2016 it assessed her entitlement to housing benefit using her student loan as income. It said her child care payments were not disregarded because she was receiving a child care grant which had been disregarded and the system would not allow two disregards for child care payments at the same time.
14. In February 2020 Ms X indicated she wanted to appeal and provided a copy of her student finance letter dated November 2016. Ms X had previously provided a copy of this letter.
15. The Council carried out another review of Ms X’s housing benefit entitlement from October 2016. The Council found an error in how it had assessed Ms X’s income and that there was an amount of student finance that should have been disregarded. The Council identified a benefit underpayment of £1997.09.
16. The Council apologised for the error and the delay in correctly assessing Ms X’s entitlement to housing benefit. It went on to say that it did not consider this underpayment of benefit was the only or main reason for her eviction. It offered Ms X a payment of £300 to remedy its fault which included a payment of £100 for the error in assessing her benefit, £150 for the delay in assessing her benefit and £50 for her time and trouble pursing the matter.

Analysis

17. The Council has accepted fault in this case. The information provided shows that it was not until March 2020 that it correctly assessed Ms X’s housing benefit entitlement from October 2016. Ms X had provided the necessary information for a correct benefit assessment to have been completed much sooner than it actually way. The delay in completing the correct assessment is fault.
18. I also note that Ms X continually challenged the assessment during 2017 until the eviction in October 2017. She then continued to pursue the issue including making formal complaints and submitting an appeal. Even when dealing with the issue as a complaint on more than one occasion, the Council failed to identify its error. I consider Ms X has been put to a considerable avoidable time and trouble in pursuing this matter. The failure to properly investigate the issues and provide a satisfactory response was fault.
19. As fault has been found, I have to consider what injustice Ms X suffered as a direct consequence. I note the Council has already offered a payment of £300 in respect of this complaint. Ms X believes she would not have been evicted if the correct housing benefit had been paid sooner. The Council says that the underpayment of housing benefit from October 2016 onwards was not the only reason for taking action to end the tenancy.
20. I note that Ms X’s rent account was in arrears from 2011 onwards. The arrears did fluctuate throughout this time period. In October 2016 Ms X was around £700 in arrears. Her arrears increased during 2017 because she was not receiving the correct amount of housing benefit. When the courts granted the warrant of eviction in October 2017, Ms X’s arrears had increased to over £4,000. The underpayment of housing benefit identified in March 2020 was for about £2,000.
21. Even if the Council had paid the correct amount of housing benefit at the correct time, arrears would have remained on Ms X’s rent account. The Council says that it would still have sought a warrant of eviction because of the level of arrears. I accept that because the correct the benefit was not paid, Ms X did not know how much she should be paying towards her rent. A copy of the rent account shows Ms X stopped making regular payments into her rent account after 8 March 2017. Ms X was aware she had existing arrears and had agreed to make payments when the third eviction warrant was suspended.
22. As the delayed payment of housing benefit in March 2020 did not clear the arrears on Ms X’s rent account, I cannot say with any certainty that this would have changed the outcome of the court hearing and that Ms X would not have been evicted.
23. However, I am not persuaded the remedy already provided by the Council adequately addresses the injustice Ms X has suffered as a result of the fault in this case. The matter was not resolved for over three years. The delay is significant and no doubt caused significant distress. I am not persuaded a payment of £150 is enough to acknowledge the distress caused by the delay. The evidence shows Ms X has continually pursued this issue to seek a resolution. The Council had sufficient information to make the correct decision much sooner than it actually did. As a result Ms X was put to significant time and trouble to resolve this matter. I consider that this was avoidable and so the time and trouble payment is not adequate.

Agreed action

24. To remedy the injustice caused to Ms X as a result of the Council’s fault it should, within one month of my final decision, take the following action:

Pay Ms X an additional £150 to recognise the distress caused by the delay; and

Pay Ms X an additional £300 to recognise the significant, avoidable time and trouble she was put to in order to resolve this issue.

These payments are in addition to the £300 previously offered by the Council which Ms X says she has not received.

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Final decision

25. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault for the reasons explained in this statement. The Council has agreed to implement the actions I have recommended. These appropriately remedy any injustice caused by fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman