Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a housing benefit overpayment. This is because the complainant could have used her appeal rights and because it is a late complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, says the Council should waive a housing benefit overpayment because it was caused by a Council error, and is unfair and inaccurate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Ms X. This includes information about the overpayment. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council notified Ms X of housing benefit overpayments in 2019 and 2020. The largest overpayment arose because Ms X had not told the Council that her childcare costs had stopped. In 2019 she told the Council she could not remember when they ended but thought it was a few years back. The Council removed the childcare costs from 2017, the date her child started school, but told Ms X she could provide evidence of the exact date so the decision could be reviewed. Ms X discussed the overpayment with the Council in 2019 but did not provide evidence about the childcare costs. The Council recovered some of the overpayment from Ms X’s on-going housing benefit.
8. In 2024 the Council issued an invoice for the outstanding overpayment. Ms X complained. The Council explained what had happened and again invited her to provide evidence of the costs so it could assess if it could reduce the overpayment. The Council put recovery action on hold for a month to give Ms X time to provide the information. The latest document I have seen says Ms X did not provide any evidence so the Council said it would send a new invoice with instalments. The Council invited Ms X to get in touch if she would struggle to pay the instalments.
9. I will not start an investigation because Ms X could have used her appeal rights in 2019 and 2020 if she thought the overpayments were wrong or should not be repaid. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to appeal because the tribunal is the correct organisation to consider overpayment disputes. The tribunal would have decided if the overpayment was correct and the amount, if any, that Ms X had to repay. We are not an appeal body and we cannot decide if overpayments should be repaid.
10. I also will not start an investigation because this is a late complaint. Ms X has been aware of the overpayments since 2019 and 2020 but did not complain to us until November 2024. I have not seen any good reason for Ms X to delay complaining to us and, as I have said, this was an issue for the tribunal.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint because Ms X could have used her appeal rights and because it is a late complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman