Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s recovery of overpayments of housing benefit. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The complaint has been made late and it was reasonable to expect Ms X to use her right of appeal to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains that the Council is seeking recovery of a housing benefit overpayment via direct deductions from her salary. Ms X also says she did not receive any notice from the Council about its decision to create the overpayments.

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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 effect 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 the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses to Ms X.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms X says she had no formal prior notifications of the Council’s decisions that she had been overpaid housing benefit.
9. The Council’s complaints responses say five overpayments were created from 2017 - 2020. And Ms X was notified each time. And, that she submitted no appeals at the time.
10. The Council highlights that overpayments were recovered through Ms X’s ongoing entitlement to housing benefit. It expected Ms X would have been aware. It says it also has records of telephone calls plus one face- to- face meeting about the overpayments.
11. With respect to more recent events, the Council says because Ms X’s housing benefit stopped in 2021, it sent letters about the remaining overpayment amount.
12. The Council advises it had no response. It says it has a duty to recover overpaid public finances so in June 2023 it requested direct deductions from Ms X’s employer.
13. I do not see good reasons to investigate Ms X’s complaint as it is late. Given overpayments were being recovered from her ongoing entitlement it is reasonable to expect she was aware of the overpayments. Further, if Ms X disputed the reasons for the overpayments, she could have appealed to the Social Security Tribunal. The tribunal is an independent body which can determine overpayment disputes.
14. With respect to the direct deductions from salary, this is not an appealable matter and subject to the Council’s discretionary powers. In any event, the Council has offered to change this method of repayment if Ms X disagrees. We are unlikely to find fault with this aspect of the Council’s actions.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because her complaint has been made late and it was reasonable to expect her to appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman