London Borough of Hackney (20 011 585)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Jun 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to recover housing benefit from her. We will not investigate this complaint because she had a right of appeal to a tribunal and the complaint is out of time.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to recover housing benefit from her.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant was given an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.
What I found
- Ms X says that she was told in 2017 that there had been an overpayment of housing benefit to her as she had not told them of her full earnings for a period in 2010.
- Ms X says that she found it difficult to dispute the Council’s assertion as the matter occurred several years before.
- Any decision to recover housing benefit carried with it a right of appeal to a tribunal. The tribunal is an expert body and their decisions are binding on the Council. I see no reason why an appeal could not be made in this case.
- Further, the decision to recover was made four years ago. I see no reason why a complaint about this matter could not have been made to this office within 12 months of the matter arising. The complaint is therefore out of time.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there was a right of appeal to a tribunal and the matter out of time.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman