London Borough of Enfield (20 003 909)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Oct 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with an increase in rent for his tenant’s housing benefit. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because entitlement to housing benefit is a matter for the claimant and the Council. The tenant has a right of appeal to a tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with an increase in rent for his tenant’s housing benefit.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 or continue with an investigation if we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault, or
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.
What I found
- Mr X is a landlord and he says that the Council failed to deal properly with his notification to it of an increased rent for his tenant (in relation to the tenant’s housing benefit claim).
- The tenant’s right to claim housing benefit and the amount of benefit is a matter solely between the tenant and the Council. A landlord has no right to question the amount of housing benefit paid to a tenant. The tenant/claimant has a right of appeal to a tribunal if they are unhappy with the housing benefit paid. Mr X has the right to enforce the terms of his tenancy contract regardless of housing benefit payment.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because this is a matter between the tenant and the Council. Any dispute about entitlement is a matter for the tribunal (for the tenant).
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman