• The complaint
• The Ombudsman’s role and powers
• How I considered this complaint
• My assessment
• Final decision

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about Housing Benefit as it's reasonable to expect him to appeal to the Tribunal. We cannot investigate the Court’s decision to grant a Council Tax liability order.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about a housing benefit notice and Council Tax recovery action.

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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 has a right of appeal, reference or review 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 use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended).
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended).
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
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).
7. 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 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)).

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Mr X.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Mr X says the Council sent him a letter in July 2024 asking him to provide some information in relation to his Housing Benefit. He says he did so. He then received a letter saying the Council had stopped his Housing Benefit from April as it had not received the information it wanted. The letter explained how he could request a review.
11. Mr X completed a review request form in September. The Council confirmed in October that it had upheld his appeal.
12. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask for a review or appeal to the Tribunal. If they have a review, and are unhappy with the decision, they can then appeal to the Tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong. Because of this opportunity for appeal, we would not normally investigate complaints about these decisions. This applies to this complaint.
13. Mr X says he received a Council Tax reminder in June and a Court summons in July 2024 for Council Tax from September 2023 to March 2025. The Court granted a Liability Order in August 2024. Mr X then received a notice of enforcement in September.
14. We cannot look at whether the Liability Order should have been applied for as a Court granted it. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have challenged the Council Tax summons if he believes it should not have been issued.
15. If Mr X believes he should be in receipt of any discount because of his income level then it is reasonable to expect him to have requested this as signposted on the reminder.
16. Mr X also complained about a Council letter sent in December 2021 wrongly referring to his death and not his wife’s. The Council apologised by letter in January 2022. This issue is now more than 12 months old and there are no good reasons why we should consider it now.

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Mr X’s housing benefit complaint as it's reasonable to expect him to appeal to the Tribunal. We will not investigate his Council Tax complaint as the Court granted a Liability Order.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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