Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s responses to his requests for information arising from his housing benefit suspension in January 2020. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has not dealt with his requests for information properly arising from his housing benefit suspension in January 2020. He believes the Council is intentionally trying to distress him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant which includes his contact with the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
8. I shared my draft views with the complainant.

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My assessment

9. Mr X complains about what happened when his housing benefit was suspended in January 2020. He says the justification used by the Council (of receiving information from the DWP) was not evidenced properly. He is also unhappy with the way the Council responded to his requests for information on when its housing benefits system was ‘down’ (as he was advised by an officer). And he is unhappy with the Council’s failure to register and investigate his complaint as a stage 2 complaint under its complaints policy.
10. The Council told Mr X his housing benefit ended as it was informed by the DWP that his Universal Credit had ended. It sent him his housing benefit records in response to his requests for information. The records contained information relating to a third party for which the Council apologised. It signposted Mr X to the Office of the Information Commissioner if he wished to pursue this further.
11. I will not investigate as Mr X has made his complaint late. I do not see good reason to exercise discretion to investigate as I have seen nothing to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner than he has.
12. However even if he had complained in time, we would not have been able to investigate. This is because it was reasonable to expect him to remedy all his concerns via an appeal to the Housing Benefit Tribunal. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision, they can ask for a review or appeal to the tribunal. If they have a review, and are unhappy with the decision, they can then appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong.

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Final decision

13. I will not exercise discretion to investigate this late complaint. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman