Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about benefit and housing application matters. Some parts of the complaint are late without good enough reason to investigate them now. Mr X could reasonably have appealed some points to the relevant tribunal. Where Mr X did appeal to the tribunal, we have no power to consider the matter. There is not enough evidence of any outstanding tribunal appeal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his benefits and his social housing application. He says this has caused stress with the Council demanding money Mr X does not believe he owes, and Mr X is facing homelessness.

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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. 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. 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)
6. 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)
7. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
8. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. Someone who disagrees with a Council’s decision about their housing benefit or council tax reduction can ask the Council to review the decision and, if still dissatisfied with the review, can appeal to a tribunal. Different tribunals deal with housing benefit and council tax matters.
12. In 2021 Mr X disagreed with a Council decision about his housing benefit that related to Mr X’s child being removed from the benefit claim. Mr X challenged the decision with the Council, which reinstated his child on the claim. As the disputed decision had changed in Mr X’s favour, there was no need for the Council to pass the matter to the tribunal.
13. If Mr X thought the Council’s amended decision remained wrong, he could reasonably have asked for a tribunal appeal on that point then. That is the route the law provides for such disputes and Mr X was evidently able to challenge points he disagreed with. Also, Mr X knew about this point several years ago, so the restriction in paragraph 3 applies. I appreciate Mr X has health problems, and his circumstances are difficult. Nevertheless, Mr X has been able to pursue matters. He could reasonably have complained to us much sooner if he thought the Council had not corrected its position properly. For these reasons, we shall not investigate this part of the complaint now.
14. Mr X says the Council then made other mistakes and wrongly cancelled his housing benefit and council tax reduction claims later in 2021. The Council therefore says Mr X owes arrears of council tax and housing benefit. It is taking court action to recover money and to remove Mr X from his temporary accommodation. Mr X believes the Council is wrong. He argues the Council has failed to take account of an outstanding tribunal appeal on this point.
15. It is properly for the relevant tribunals, not the Ombudsman, to decide Mr X’s entitlement to housing benefit and council tax reduction for the relevant periods. The evidence I have seen shows the Council cancelled Mr X’s housing benefit in October 2021. Mr X disputed that with the Council then appealed to the tribunal in 2022. We cannot consider matters that have been appealed to a tribunal. In late 2022 the tribunal ordered the Council to reconsider Mr X’s housing benefit entitlement from August 2021 to early 2022. The Council wrote to Mr X on 10 March 2023 saying it had reconsidered and had awarded benefit for that period.
16. So the evidence suggests the matter Mr X wanted to appeal to the tribunal did go to the tribunal. I have seen no evidence of Mr X seeking any other tribunal appeal, either for housing benefit or council tax, that the Council failed to pass to the tribunal. So there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant the Ombudsman investigating the Council’s claim that there is no outstanding tribunal appeal.
17. Also, if Mr X thinks the Council did not act properly regarding the matter the tribunal decided in 2022, he could reasonably have complained about that sooner. There is not good enough reason to investigate this now.
18. As paragraph 6 explained, the law prevents us investigating the Council’s decisions to start court action against Mr X and how the Council conducted court action.
19. Mr X also complains about his social housing application. He states in 2022 he agreed to pay £10 each week towards his alleged arrears so he could bid for properties on the housing register. However, Mr X says he could not bid for properties the correct size. He believes he lost the opportunity to bid for at least three suitable properties.
20. The restriction in paragraph 3 applies here as the events were several years ago. Mr X could reasonably have pursued this matter and complained to us considerably sooner. I do not see good enough reason to investigate this point now.

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Final decision

21. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. Some parts are late without good enough reason to investigate them now. Mr X could reasonably have appealed some points to the relevant tribunal. Where Mr X did appeal to the tribunal, we have no power to consider the matter. There is not enough evidence of any outstanding tribunal appeal. We cannot consider the court action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman