Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council recovering overpayments it made in housing benefit to the complainant. This is because the Council’s decision to recover the overpayments carries a right of appeal to a tribunal. We have no legal jurisdiction to investigate in these circumstances.

The complaint

1. The complainant (Ms X) complains about the Council recovering overpayments in housing benefits. She says the debts date back to between 2005 and 2008 and she should not now have to repay the overpayments. As a desired outcome, Ms X wants the Council to write off the debts.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The complaint concerns historical overpayments in housing benefit from as early as 2005 which the Council determined Ms X is liable to repay. This decision carried a right of appeal to a tribunal which considers such disputes. The Council says Ms X exercised this right in 2008 and the tribunal disallowed the appeal. Regardless, as Ms X appealed and because the matters subject to her complaint to us overlap with the role of the tribunal, we cannot by law investigate. The restriction I outcome at Paragraph 2 (above) applies.
5. Further, we do not investigate a complaint where the alleged fault has not caused an injustice to the complainant. This means assessing whether Ms X has suffered serious loss, harm or distress due to the Council recovery of the debts. The amount of debt is owed due to overpayments made to Ms X. She has not suffered an injustice by reason of the Council recovering the amounts overpaid to her, regardless of the passage of time.

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Final decision

6. We cannot investigate this complaint about historical debt due to overpayments in housing benefit and whether Ms X should repay it. This is because the Council’s decision to recover the overpayments carries a right of appeal to a tribunal. Ms X appealed the decision to the tribunal in 2008. The complaint is therefore outside our legal jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman