Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in the Council telling Mrs X when she needed to start paying her rent. This is because the Council has offered a suitable remedy to recognise the injustice caused by the delays and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council delayed in telling her when she needed to start paying her rent. This resulted in her accruing just under £4000 in rent arrears.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council suspended Mrs X’s benefit claim due to her notifying it of a change of circumstances. The Council said Mrs X accrued arrears due to not paying sufficient rent while her claim was suspended. The Council maintained Mrs X should have been aware of her responsibility to pay her rent liability and that there was no guarantee housing benefit will continue to be paid following a change of circumstance.
6. The Council accepted it could have updated Mrs X’s claim much earlier as it received sufficient evidence in August 2021. There was a delay of around three months as the Council did not update Mrs X’s benefit claim until November 2021. The Council also accepted it should have told Mrs X to contact the temporary accommodation team to discuss how much rent she should pay while it waited for her benefit claim to be reviewed and updated.
7. The Council has offered Mrs X £150 to recognise the distress caused by the delay. The Council has declined Mrs X’s request for the rent arrears accrued between September and November 2021 to be waived.
8. I am satisfied with the Council’s remedy offer and agree it is not appropriate for the Council to waive the arrears as Mrs X is in the same position she would have been even if the delay had not occurred. This is because if the Council had appropriately updated Mrs X’s claim in August 2021, it would still have closed the claim and Mrs X would still be responsible for paying her rent from that point on.
9. We acknowledge the uncertainty of not knowing what was happening with her claim would have caused Mrs X distress and anxiety. Therefore, this is the injustice caused by the delay. The Council has made an appropriate remedy offer, which is in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies, to recognise this injustice.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council has offered a suitable remedy which is in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance. Further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman