Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about discretionary housing payments. One issue is too late. On another issue we are unlikely to find any injustice. And on another we are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council should have paid him Discretionary Crisis Support Scheme (DCSS) payments and was too late in deciding his Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) application.

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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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X which included the Council’s reply to him.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X applied for DHP in December 2021. The Council refused the application in June 2022 and upheld the decision on appeal in July 2022. In a complaint response to Mr X in February 2025 the Council said there was no evidence he had been advised at that time of the choice of applying for DCSS payments. But it said that even if he had applied he would have been unsuccessful.
7. Mr X applied in May 2024 for DHP. The Council says its advertised target for deciding claims is 8 to 12 weeks. It says it met this target. Mr X says if the Council had decided the claim earlier he might not have been evicted. The Council says the landlord told its officer it was going to continue with the eviction, even if they received payments from Mr X, as they planned to sell the property.

Analysis

8. We will not investigate the DHP claim in 2021 as this happened more than 12 months ago and there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.
9. We will not investigate the lack of a DCSS application in 2022 as it is unlikely Mr X has been caused any injustice because of any Council failure of informing him of the DCSS.
10. We will not investigate the time taken to decide the May 2024 DHP application as it is unlikely we would find fault.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because part of it is too late, on part it is unlikely we would find any injustice and on the remainder we are unlikely to find fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman