Summary: The Council, when telling Miss X to repay housing benefit (HB) and council tax, used the wrong postcode for Miss X and did not tell her how to appeal against the council tax decision. The Council has now agreed my invitation to support a late appeal request to the tribunal dealing with HB. The Council has also now told Miss X how to appeal against the CTR decision. Therefore it is reasonable to expect Miss X to appeal to the tribunals, so we shall not investigate whether Miss X should repay money. There are insufficient reasons to investigate other parts of the complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her claims for housing benefit (HB) and council tax reduction (CTR), especially its decisions in 2022 that it had given her too much HB and CTR. She says this has resulted in demands to repay about £10,000, which she cannot afford, and has caused distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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 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)
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
9. I gave Miss X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

10. If a Council decides it has given someone too much HB and/or CTR, it can ask the claimant to pay it back. Claimants can appeal against those decisions to independent tribunals. The appeal process is different for HB and CTR:
• For HB decisions, the claimant should ask the Council for an appeal within one month. If the appeal reasons do not persuade the Council to change its decision, the Council must then forward the appeal to the Tribunals Service for the Social Entitlement Chamber to consider.
• For CTR decisions, the claimant can appeal direct to the Valuation Tribunal.
11. In February 2022 the Council told Miss X it had given her too much HB and CTR and she should repay it. Miss X queried that and provided more information, resulting in the Council changing those decisions. Therefore the February 2022 decisions do not cause any continuing injustice so I shall not consider them.
12. On 25 March 2022 the Council made new decisions, still saying Miss X should repay HB and CTR. Miss X says she did not receive those decision letters at the time, only seeing copies the Council later supplied. By that time, the one-month period to ask for an appeal against a HB decision had passed. If Miss X had appealed within one month, the tribunal would have had to consider the appeal. However, if Miss X wants to appeal now, which I understand she does, she will have to make a late appeal request to the Council. The Council will then pass the request to the tribunal, which will consider whether to deal with a late appeal. The tribunal does not have to hear late appeals but can use its discretion to do so.
13. It appears Miss X received some of the Council’s letters but not others. When I got copies of the various letters from the Council, I saw the Council had got Miss X’s postcode slightly wrong. That could have resulted in post going astray, which might explain the apparent non-arrival of the letters of 25 March 2022. Therefore the Council’s error with the postcode could have deprived Miss X of the opportunity to appeal against the HB decision in the normal timescale.
14. The Council did not tell Miss X how to appeal against the CTR decision. That was fault.
15. In May 2022 Miss X told the Council she wanted to appeal. After I contacted the Council, it wrote to Miss X to explain:
1. What Miss X must give the Council for it to deal with a late appeal request on the HB decision; and
2. How Miss X can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal against the CTR decision.
16. Once Miss X supplies the necessary information for the HB appeal, the Council will forward it to the Tribunals Service. The Council says it will support Miss X’s request for the tribunal to hear her appeal late, as the Council’s error with the postcode might have caused the delay.
17. The tribunal appeal rights mean the restrictions in paragraphs 3 to 5 above apply to the complaint about whether Miss X should repay the money. The law expressly provides those appeal routes. The tribunals have the expertise to decide such matters. They can make binding orders changing the Council’s decisions if they see fit. The tribunal system is relatively straightforward to use. The Council has committed to supporting Miss X’s request for her HB appeal to be heard late. In the circumstances, it is reasonable to expect Miss X to appeal to the tribunals. Therefore I shall not investigate whether Miss X should repay the HB and council tax.
18. Miss X is also unhappy with the Council’s dealings with her regarding its decisions, including its handling of telephone calls and emails. I do not consider those points caused Miss X a significant enough injustice, sufficiently separate from the underlying substantive matter (whether Miss X should repay the HB and CTR), to justify the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to investigating those points.
19. Miss X also mentioned events dating back some years concerning her HB and CTR. Paragraph 6 above applies to those events. I do not see good reason to try to investigate them now. Also, it would be difficult to reach a clear enough view now on events some years ago. Therefore I have only considered the events around the Council’s decisions in 2022, which caused Miss X to complain to us.

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Agreed action

20. At my invitation, the Council has agreed to:
1. Forward Miss X’s late appeal against the HB decision to the Tribunal Service, once Miss X supplies the necessary information. The Council will support the request for a late appeal.
2. Correct its records to show the correct postcode.

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Final decision

21. Subject to any comments Miss X might make, my view is we should not investigate this complaint. This is because it is more appropriate for the tribunals to consider the central point of whether Miss X should repay the money. The Council’s agreed actions above are a suitable remedy for any injustice caused by the error with the postcode. Other points are not significant enough in themselves for us to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman