Salford City Council (21 013 548)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a disputed overpayment of housing benefit. The complaint is out of time and there was a right of appeal to a tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s recovery of an overpayment of housing benefit.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that he was contacted by the Council in 2017 about an overpayment of housing benefit (from 2013) which he disputed.
- Any dispute about the recovery of an overpayment of housing benefit can be appealed to a tribunal. The tribunal is an expert body and their decisions are binding on the Council. I see no reason why an appeal could not be made in this case.
- Further, Mr X was aware of the matter, at least from 2017. I see no reason why a complaint about this could not have been made to this office within 12 months of this date. I consider, therefore, the complaint to be out of time and so out of our jurisdiction.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is out of time and there was a right of appeal to a tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman