Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council calculated Mr X’s housing benefit entitlement. It is reasonable for Mr X to use his right of appeal to tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council miscalculated his housing benefit. He says it did not respond to his attempts to contact it about the matter. He says this left him with over £1,000 underpayments and he has gone to significant time and trouble in looking into what he believes are systemic errors affecting many people. He wants the Council to make service improvements.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained about the Council’s calculation of his housing benefit over three years. The Council has recently amended a decision and is paying some underpaid housing benefit back to Mr X. However, he says there remain several errors, including a decision that he has been overpaid for one period.
6. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask the Council to review its decision. If they have a review, and are unhappy with the decision, they can then appeal to the independent benefits tribunal (the First-Tier Tribunal) administered by the Ministry of Justice, through its HM Courts and Tribunal Service.
7. Because of this opportunity for appeal, we would not normally investigate complaints about this type of decision. The tribunal is an independent expert body whose decisions are binding on the Council. It would be reasonable to make an appeal to the tribunal in this case. This also applies to the other people Mr X says are affected by errors, and there is not an overriding public interest reason for us to investigate this instead of individuals using their right of appeal.
8. 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. Some periods Mr X complains about may now be out of time. However, it is open to Mr X to ask the Council to refer his case to the tribunal, for a Tribunal Service Judge to decide whether to accept a late appeal.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to use his right of appeal to tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman