Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to recover housing benefit and council tax reduction it had overpaid. That is because it is not unreasonable to expect the complainant to have used her rights of appeal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs B, has complained about the Council’s decision to recover housing benefit and council tax reduction it had overpaid.

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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. 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)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mrs B told us the Council should have notified her of the overpaid amounts sooner. She said, in 2016, a council advisor had told her she no longer needed to send in pay slips as the Council would get that information itself.
9. Mrs B said the Council’s decision has caused financial hardship and distress, affecting her mental health. She has questioned why it has taken the Council so long to notify her of the overpaid amounts.
10. If a council pays too much housing benefit to someone it will usually ask them to repay it. The law says an overpayment is recoverable unless it was caused by an official error and it was not reasonable to expect the person to realise they were receiving too much benefit. If someone disagrees with a decision that they must repay an overpayment they can appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong. The tribunal can accept a late appeal up to 13 months from the date of the decision.
11. Council tax reduction (CTR, also known as council tax support) is a discount, not a benefit. If someone is paid too much CTR the Council can reduce the amount of CTR and so increase the amount of council tax owed. We call these changes CTR reversals. Sometimes reversals are created because the Council has miscalculated the CTR, perhaps ignoring information it had, or using information it should have not used.
12. If the Council’s CTR Scheme says how it deals with challenges to reversals (sometimes called ‘overpayments’) a claimant can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.
13. Councils can award discretionary CTR to reduce a claimant’s council tax, using their powers under S13A(1)(c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (as amended). Each council should have its own scheme. Somebody suffering financial hardship because of a decision about wrongly paid council tax reduction, can apply for a discretionary reduction. Appeals about those decisions are to the Valuation Tribunal.
14. We have no powers to decide housing benefit and CTR appeals. The tribunals are independent expert bodies whose decisions are binding on councils. So, it would not have been unreasonable to expect Mrs B to have used the specific remedy the law provides for people who wish to challenge housing benefit and CTR decisions.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint because it is not unreasonable to expect her to have used her rights of appeal against the Council’s decision to recover the amounts it overpaid to her.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman