Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about recovery of housing benefit overpayment. A complaint about the original decision in 2022 is late. The Council has recently offered to review the decision if Ms X provides additional information. It is reasonable for her to accept this offer.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to recover a housing benefit overpayment from 2017 -2022. She says the Councils calculations are inaccurate and she should not have to repay it. She wants the Council to write off the debt.

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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. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In 2022, the Council decided to recover an overpayment of housing benefit made to Ms X’s household. Ms X appealed this decision at the time, but the Council did not change its decision. Ms X’s husband made payments towards the debt between 2022 and 2024.
8. In 2024, Ms X’s husband died. The Council began to send invoices for the debt repayments to Ms X.
9. Ms X complained to the Council. She said she did not agree she should have to re-pay the debt as she believed the Council’s calculations in 2022 were incorrect.
10. In its complaint responses to Ms X, the Council said it had reviewed the decision and maintained that the decision was correct. It said having considered the circumstances, if Ms X provided additional information in support of her position, it would review the decision again.
11. We will not investigate this complaint. Any complaint about the 2022 decision is late. If Ms X had disagreed with the decision at that time, she could have approached us sooner.
12. In addition, the Council has recently offered to review the decision. It is reasonable for Ms X to accept the Council’s offer of a review and we could not achieve more than this. If Ms X disagrees with the outcome of the review, she can appeal to the tribunal. The tribunal is the appropriate body to resolve any dispute about housing benefit overpayments.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. A complaint about the 2022 is late and it is reasonable for Ms X to accept the Council’s recent offer of a review.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman