Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council delayed paying housing benefit to which he was entitled. We are satisfied the Council has paid the benefit and it has agreed to pay Mr X £100 to remedy any injustice caused by the delay.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to pay housing benefit following the Upper Tribunal’s decision, in November 2020, that he was entitled to benefit since he first claimed in April 2019. Mr X complains the Council failed to make a decision on his entitlement or the method of payment as instructed by the Upper Tribunal.
2. Mr X says the Council delayed paying his housing benefit of £952.86 until February 2022. He says the Council’s actions obliged him to borrow money to pay the rent and the interest charges are running into thousands of pounds. Mr X wants the Council to pay compensation.

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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 satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
6. 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)
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered Mr X’s information and comments including his replies to my questions and provisional view of his complaint. I have considered the Council’s information and comments. The information held includes decisions by the tribunals and courts.

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My assessment

9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint for the following reasons:
10. The Council has agreed to pay Mr X £100. This remedies his injustice for the delay in paying housing benefit following the 2020 Upper Tribunal decision. Mr X has not provided evidence of having an interest-bearing loan and his email to me, dated 20 April, says ‘you can presume I borrowed from myself’.
11. The Council accepted at the Upper Tribunal appeal that Mr X was entitled to benefit. The Upper Tribunal found Mr X was entitled from 2019 because he was on a pension credit which automatically qualified him for housing benefit. The problem in this case was the method of payment when it appeared Mr X did not have a bank account. The method of payment was outside the jurisdiction of the Tribunal and the Council had wrongly thought it was relevant to entitlement.
12. I have recommended to the Council it review the practice issues. The payment method should have been resolved in late 2020 not some 14 months later. The Council delayed dealing with the issue and then dropped the matter until Mr X attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a judicial review of earlier decisions. The Council could have obtained information from the Department of Work and Pensions about how the pension was paid. It should have produced the manually produced cheque, which resolved the problem, much earlier.
13. We cannot investigate Mr X’s benefit entitlement. We are legally barred because Mr X used his right of appeal to the benefit tribunals (see paragraph 4 and 5 above).
14. Actions on the payment method which predate December 2020 are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Mr X complains late and outside the permitted period of 12 months (see paragraphs 4 and 6). I will not exercise discretion to investigate because Mr X could have complained sooner. I do not consider it would be a good use of limited public resources to investigate. The Council has the Upper Tribunal decision which explains the law and practice issues.
15. Mr X tells me he wants to take legal action against the Council for compensation. Potentially, this places the complaint outside our jurisdiction (see paragraph 7). However, I have not considered it reasonable for Mr X to take such action. It is not clear on what ground he would act against the Council and his last legal action was misconceived.

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Final decision

16. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council delayed paying housing benefit to which he was entitled. We are satisfied the Council has paid the benefit and it has agreed to pay Mr X £100 to remedy any injustice caused by the delay.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman