Summary: Mr X complained that he received an overpayment of Housing Benefit due in part to an error by the Council. Subject to any comments Mr X might make, my view is we cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained he and his wife were incorrectly awarded more Housing Benefit than they were entitled to. Mr X says the Council is partially to blame for this as it made an error during calculation of their award. Mr X says they should have identified this error sooner to avoid them receiving this overpayment, which has caused them stress and financial difficulty. Mr X says the council should contribute to some of the cost of the overpayment.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mr X received a Housing Benefit overpayment which he says was partially due to Council error and the Council should have identified the error sooner. Mr X appealed the overpayment with the Council in 2012. The Council provided us with a copy of the outcome and passed the case to the Tribunals Service.
6. Mr X says that there was delay in starting Tribunal proceedings because important letters were sent to their old address. However, the Tribunal documents show that the Tribunal did go ahead and the recoverable sum did not increase during the period of delay.
7. The Tribunal ruled that while the Council had incorrectly inputted Mrs X’s income as fortnightly instead of weekly, it ‘would have been apparent’ from the notification letters sent to Mr and Mrs X that the income listed was incorrect.
8. The Tribunal court documents also say that Mrs X admitted failure to report to the council her increases in tax credits and wages and so ruled that the amount was recoverable.
9. Mr X says that he has not received any verdict. The Decision Notice of the Tribunal has been provided to us by the Council and states that the Decision Notice was issued to the appellant (Mrs X on Mr X’s behalf) on the date of the Tribunal.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We cannot investigate this complaint because Mr X has appealed to a tribunal.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman