Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement of a housing benefit debt as there is no evidence of fault by the Council. There was also a right of appeal to a tribunal and part of the complaint is out of time.

The complaint

1. Ms X says that the Council should not have obtained an attachment of earnings order against her as this affected her work.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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)
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. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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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. The Council decided to recover an overpayment of benefit from Ms X and this was recovered through her ongoing payments of housing benefit. However, when the housing benefit stopped they sought to recover by sending her invoices for the money (which were not then paid).
9. As no further payment was made, the Council decided to recover the debt by an attachment of earnings order through the courts (which was agreed). The order was enforced and payments were deducted from her wages.
10. The decision to recover the overpayment could have been appealed to a tribunal at the time. The tribunal is an expert body and their decisions are binding on the Council. I see no reason why an appeal could not be made in this case. Further, the decision to recover was made more than 12 months ago and so is out of time and therefore out of jurisdiction.
11. The Council is entitled to enforce a debt in various ways, including the use of an attachment of earnings order. I am not persuaded that there is any evidence of fault in the way this was obtained.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman