Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about housing benefit matters. Mrs X had the right to appeal against the key decision affecting her. Part of the complaint is late. It is also unlikely the Ombudsman could reach a clear enough view now on events dating back some years.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about various matters related to the Council’s handling of her housing benefit claim. She states this resulted in her benefit not being backdated far enough, causing her financial difficulties.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
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)
4. We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Mrs X provided. I gave Mrs X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. Mrs X says the Council mishandled her attempts to claim housing benefit over four years, including: not making ‘reasonable adjustments’ when she wanted help completing benefit claim forms; denying Mrs X had partly completed online claim forms; changing its mind about whether to pay a claim; and only backdating Mrs X’s housing benefit payments to January 2019 whereas Mrs X wants it backdated four years.
7. The Council states before 2019 Mrs X saved some partly completed benefit forms, most recently in December 2017, but the Council did not regard that as Mrs X sending a claim and she did not contact the Council again about housing benefit until January 2019. Mrs X complained to the Council in May 2019 and received a reply then in which, among other points, the Council said that if it were to decide to pay Mrs X any housing benefit, it would probably only backdate payments to January 2019, not earlier. Mrs X made a claim in July 2019, the Council seemingly asked some questions and decided to pay housing benefit in mid-2020. The Council decided to backdate housing benefit to January 2019.
8. The central point, in terms of matters affecting Mrs X, is that Mrs X has not received all the benefit she believes she should have had. That is mainly because the Council has not backdated the payments as far as Mrs X wants it to. If Mrs X disagreed with the Council’s backdating decision, the law gave her the right to ask the Council to review its decision and, if still dissatisfied, she could appeal to an independent tribunal. So the restriction described in paragraph 2 applies.
9. The Ombudsman normally expects benefit claimants to use their review and appeal rights. I understand a tribunal could consider any equality-related arguments as far as they are necessary and relevant to the appeal. The tribunal could, if it saw fit, change the Council’s backdating decision, which we cannot (we can only make recommendations). I have not seen good reasons we could not reasonably expect Mrs X to appeal.
10. Mrs X knew in May 2019 she was dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of her housing benefit matters so far. She also knew then that the Council was unlikely to backdate any benefit payments to before January 2019. Mrs X did not complain to the Ombudsman until July 2020. So the restriction in paragraph 3 applies to matters Mrs X knew about by May 2019.
11. I am mindful Mrs X reports difficulty pursuing her claims, which could be related to a disability. Such issues might affect how quickly someone can deal with a complaint. However, in Mrs X’s case, I note she sent us two complaints in 2018. So Mrs X was aware of our service and able to use it well before May 2019. Between May 2019 (when Mrs X knew she was unhappy about housing benefit matters) and July 2020 (when Mrs X complained to us about those matters), Mrs X sent us two complaints about other matters in October 2019 and March 2020. So I am not persuaded Mrs X’s difficulties would have prevented her complaining to us within 12 months.
12. Mrs X complained to us about 14 months after her complaint to the Council. However, the main issues are about events well before then. The difficulties Mrs X says she had appear to have happened from around 2016 (as Mrs X argues events date back four years) to late December 2017 (when the Council says Mrs X last contacted it about benefits before renewing contact in January 2019). There does not appear to be detailed evidence of any contact in that period, beyond Mrs X having saved some incomplete online claim forms. In the circumstances, I consider it unlikely on balance we would be able to reach a clear enough view about whether there was fault by the Council but for which Mrs X would have received housing benefit sooner.
13. Also, the main claimed impact of the Council’s alleged faults (whether those faults happened before or after May 2019) relates to the backdating decision, for which the tribunal appeal procedure is the proper route. So it is also unlikely the Ombudsman could achieve what Mrs X wants.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X had the right to appeal on the main point affecting her, the complaint is late and it is unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now or achieve what Mrs X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman