Summary: Miss X complains about the Council’s decision to create an overpayment of housing benefit in 2016. We will not investigate this late complaint as it was reasonable to expect Miss X to complain to us at the time. Even if we did decide to investigate it is unlikely, we would achieve much as Miss X could have complained to the specialist tribunal that deal with appeals about housing benefit.

The complaint

1. In short, Miss X complains about a Council decision in 2016 to create an overpayment of £5000. She says she sent in information to the Council at the time to evidence her view that she had not been overpaid but the Council did not get back to her until 2022.
2. Miss X says she cannot afford to pay the debt back and this is causing her great distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. 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)
6. 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

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

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My assessment

9. I will not investigate as Miss X has made her complaint late and it is therefore caught by our time bar on investigating. I do not see good reason to investigate now as Miss X could have complained to us at the time. Further, even if did investigate it is unlikely we would achieve anything. This is because it was reasonable to expect Miss X to appeal to the specialist housing benefit tribunal.

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Final decision

10. I will not investigate this late complaint. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us within 12 months of becoming aware in 2016. And even if we did investigate it is unlikelywe could achieve much given it was reasonable to expect her to appeal to the specialist housing benefit tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman