Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about recovery of a housing benefit overpayment. There has been some delay by the Council but this has not caused enough injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council is trying to recover a housing benefit overpayment from 2012. Mrs X wants the Council to reduce the amount she has to repay.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council. This includes the complaint replies and a copy of an agreement Mrs X signed in 2012 agreeing to repay the money. I considered our Assessment Code and comments Mrs X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

4. In 2012 the Council asked Mrs X to repay a housing benefit overpayment of £2081. Mrs X made an agreement in 2012 to repay the money. Mrs X wrote on the payment agreement that she was waiting for her landlord to give her a cheque. Mrs X made three payments. Her last payment was in 2013. Mrs X did not receive any money from her landlord.
5. In 2021 the Council asked Mrs X to repay the rest of the money. She currently owes £1811. The Council has invited her to make a payment plan. Mrs X has not done so. The Council apologised for the delay in recovering the money which it blamed on a technical issue.
6. Mrs X says the Council should reduce the debt because it made an error and she no longer has payslips from the overpayment period. She says the Council could have contacted her before 2021 and her agreement to pay was subject to the landlord paying her some money.
7. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. The Council made an error and should have chased Mrs X for payment before 2021. But, equally, Mrs X signed an agreement to repay the money but did not do so. As she did not appeal she was required to repay the overpayment regardless of whether she received any money from her landlord. At any time from 2013 Mrs X could have resumed payment.
8. The delay has not caused Mrs X to lose her appeal rights because, if she disputed the overpayment, she needed to have appealed within one month of being told about the overpayment. The fact that she made a repayment agreement suggests she had decided not to appeal.
9. The Council invited Mrs X to make a new payment plan and it has not, at this stage, tried to use formal enforcement approaches. There was delay by both sides but given that Mrs X did not challenge the overpayment, and the amount has not increased, the delay has not caused enough injustice to require an investigation.

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Final decision

10. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman