Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint that the Council wrongly took money from the complainant and has refused to refund it. This is because we cannot investigate the actions of the Housing Service and because this is a late complaint. In addition, there were appeal rights the complainant could have used.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council frightened her mother into paying money to stop Ms X from being evicted and then refused to repay the money as agreed by the officer. Ms X says she was entitled to housing benefit and should never have had rent arrears. Ms X wants the Council to refund the money.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence and comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

Back to top

My assessment

8. The Council had a date to evict Ms X in 2016 for rent arrears. Ms X says a housing officer said that if she paid £1502 the eviction would be cancelled and the money would be refunded when a housing benefit issue was resolved. Ms X says her mother paid the money on her credit card. The Council cancelled the eviction.
9. Ms X was getting housing benefit in 2016 but she accrued rent arrears because the Council was deducting money to repay a housing benefit overpayment and Ms X was not paying the shortfall. The Council made decisions about the housing benefit, and the overpayment, in 2016. There was also an outstanding overpayment of £1966 from 2011.
10. Ms X’s tenancy ended in 2019 and she owes £3334 in relation to that tenancy. Ms X is repaying a housing benefit overpayment which she says she should not be repaying.
11. Ms X complains the Council refused to refund the £1502 that her mother paid on her behalf in 2016. The Council says it correctly advised Ms X in 2016 that she needed to clear the arrears to cancel the eviction. The Council says there is little information available due to the passage of time but there is nothing to suggest Ms X was told the £1502 would be refunded.
12. Ms X says she was misadvised and bullied into paying £1502 by a rent officer who worked for the housing service. The law says we cannot investigate the Council when it is acting as a landlord. The actions Ms X complains of relate to the management of her rent arrears by the housing service. This means I have no power to investigate the complaint.
13. I also will not start an investigation because this is a late complaint. Ms X says she was misadvised in 2016 but she did not complain to us until 2023. I have not seen any good reason to investigate a complaint which relates to matters from seven years ago.
14. Ms X says she should have been getting housing benefit and she disputes the overpayments. I will not investigate any issue relating to Ms X’s benefit or overpayments because she could have used her review and appeal rights. Ms X would have had one month to challenge any benefit decision she thought was wrong. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to have used her appeal rights because that is the correct way to challenge benefit decisions.

Back to top

Final decision

15. We cannot investigate this complaint because we cannot investigate the actions of the housing team, the complaint is late and there were appeal rights Ms X could have used.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman