Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council handled the complainant’s housing benefit. This is because there were appeal rights the complainant did or could have used and because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, disagrees with the way the Council assessed his housing benefit. He also complains that officers did not respond, were untruthful and caused hardship by not assessing his claim correctly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence, appeal bundle and tribunal decision. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X disagrees with the way the Council assessed his housing benefit. In particular he disagrees that part of his pension should be treated as income. Mr X appealed to the tribunal about the inclusion of that part of his pension. Mr X also appealed about an overpayment.
6. The tribunal decided the Council was correct to count all the pension as income. The tribunal also decided the overpayment is not recoverable from Mr X.
7. I cannot investigate any issue relating to the way the Council calculated Mr X’s housing benefit. This is because he has either appealed to the tribunal or, if there are other aspects of the benefit decision that he disputes, he could have lodged a further appeal. We expect people to use all their appeal rights. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to do this because the tribunal is the appropriate body to consider benefit disputes. This restriction applies even if a tribunal does not uphold some or all of an appeal.
8. Mr X also complained about the conduct of officers. For example, he has complained of unanswered queries, untruthful replies, an inaccurate assessment of foreign currency, and not following the regulations. Some of these issues either did or could form part of an appeal to the tribunal. In respect of anything that could not have been appealed, I have not seen anything to suggest fault requiring an investigation. In part, some of Mr X’s complaints flow from his disagreement with the way his benefit has been calculated and, as I have said, that is a matter for the tribunal.
9. Mr X has referred to his council tax in his complaint to the Council. As with the housing benefit, Mr X could have appealed to the Valuation Tribunal if he did not think the Council assessed his council tax and council tax support correctly.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there were appeal rights Mr X has either used or could have used, and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman