Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council seeking to recover an overpayment of housing benefit from the complainant. This is because the complaint is made late and the complainant had a right of appeal to a tribunal. There is insufficient evidence of any recent fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. In 2010 the Council told the complainant, who I will call Mr X, it had decided to recover an overpayment of housing benefit from him. Mr X denied there was an overpayment.
2. Mr X did not hear from the Council again until 2018 since when it has sought to recover the overpayment from him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal, or could have appealed, 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)

We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X was aware in 2010 the Council had decided an overpayment in housing benefit was recoverable from him. He could have complained to us at that time, although we would likely have told him to appeal to a tribunal.
8. More recently, Mr X has made some payments to the Council. I understand the Council considers he still needs to pay around £7,000. In the absence of a successful appeal, there is no time limit on the Council seeking to recover an overpayment.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is late and Mr X had the right of appeal to a tribunal. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council is seeking to recover the overpayment now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman