Summary: Mrs C complains about how the Council handled her housing benefit. She says she did not receive letters about changes to her housing benefit award which led to her being in arrears, and some of her housing benefit was allocated towards a property she had already vacated. We have discontinued this investigation as the Council has already resolved the matter the Ombudsman is able to investigate.

The complaint

1. Mrs C complains about how the Council handled her housing benefit. She says that in 2016 she did not receive letters about her housing benefit award as her letter box was being tampered with, and this led to her being in arrears due to her award being reduced. She also says that during 2021, she realised that one month’s worth of her benefits had been awarded towards a property she had already vacated.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated the events that occurred in 2021 when Mrs C discovered some of her housing benefit had been allocated to a property she had vacated. The reason for not investigating the events from 2016 are detailed later in this statement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. 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)
5. 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)
6. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses.
8. I spoke with Mrs C on the telephone about the complaint.
9. I invited Mrs C and the Council to comment on the draft decision and considered any comments made in response.

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What I found

10. 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.

What happened

11. Mrs C complained to the Council in 2021 regarding arrears from her housing benefit dating back to 2016.
12. She said some of her benefits had been used to pay for one month’s rent at a property which she had left the month before.
13. The Council said it agreed one month’s rent had been allocated to a property she had already vacated and said it would calculate the amount of overpayment and then contact Mrs C.
14. When discussing the complaint with me on the telephone, Mrs C said the Council had confirmed the amount of overpayment and taken it off the amount of rent arrears she currently owes.

Analysis

15. When it was discovered one months’ worth of housing benefit had been allocated to a property Mrs C had vacated, the Council allocated the relevant amount of benefit to be deducted from arrears Mrs C currently owes the Council. This was not a fault which requires any service improvement, and the Council has already addressed the issue. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, and I discontinue this investigation.

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Final decision

16. I discontinue this investigation for the reasons mentioned in this statement.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

17. I did not investigate the complaint about Mrs C not receiving correspondence about her housing benefit award in 2016. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now. Mrs C has had communication with the Council about the matter on multiple occasions since then and could have raised the complaint sooner.
18. Additionally, the Council has allowed Mrs C to make a late appeal about the housing benefit decisions. Should Mrs C remain unhappy after the appeal then she can appeal to the tribunal, and it would be reasonable for her to do so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman