Summary: Mr X’s representative complained on his behalf about the Council’s handling of his housing benefit reviews. They complained it had incorrectly calculated his housing benefit, delayed in responding to his requests for review and had not provided Mr X with his appeal rights. The Council was a fault for delaying to completing Mr X’s housing benefit review. However, the Council has now recalculated Mr X’s housing benefit and backdated it to 2022 which remedies part of the injustice caused to Mr X. The Council agreed to apologise and pay a symbolic payment to Mr X for the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay.

The complaint

1. Mr X’s representative complained in his behalf that the Council had incorrectly calculated his housing benefit, had not responded to review requests and had not provided him with his appeal rights. They said Mr X wanted his housing benefit recalculating correctly back to 2022.
2. Mr X’s representative said the delays and poor communication had caused him distress, uncertainty and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

5. I have investigated Mr X’s complaint from May 2024, Mr X’s most recent housing benefit review request to June 2025, the Council’s final complaint response.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant Law, Guidance and policies

Housing Benefit

8. The Council manages and pays Housing Benefit which helps eligible people on low incomes pay their rent. Regulations set out the rules councils must follow for calculating and paying Housing Benefit. Usually, the Council pays the tenant housing benefit. The tenant is then responsible for paying the rent to their landlord.
9. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask the council for a review. If they have a review, and are not happy 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 the person can appeal, we would normally decide not to investigate complaints about these decisions.

What happened

10. In May 2024 Mr X asked the Council to review its housing benefit decision, he did not receive a response.
11. In March 2025 Mr X made a corporate complaint to the Council, he said he had never received an award letter or any response to his housing benefit review requests since 2022. Further he had contacted the Council on numerous occasions to advise his housing benefit decision was incorrect.
12. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in June 2025. It apologised for the delay in responding to his review request in 2024 but said he was in receipt of the correct amount of benefit from 2022 to date. It advised it had completed its investigation.
13. The Council sent a separate review request response to Mr X in June 2025. It acknowledged his requests for review from July 2022 and May 2024 and apologised for the delay in responding to them. Again, it advised Mr X he was in receipt of the correct amount of housing benefit. It provided his appeal rights.
14. Mr X remained unhappy with the Councils responses and asked the Ombudsman to investigate.

The Councils response to the Ombudsman

15. The Council advised that it has reviewed and implemented a new management system for benefit requests and documents. This includes a streamlined benefit review allocation process. As part of this it had reviewed and recalculated Mr X’s housing benefit and found Mr X’s benefits were incorrect going back to 2022. It had now backdated Mr X’s housing benefit to 2022.

My findings

16. Mr X requested a review of his housing benefit assessment in May 2024, the Council did not respond until June 2025. During our investigation the Council recalculated Mr X’s housing benefit, backdated and paid this from 2022. This is the outcome Mr X sought and so further investigation would not achieve anything further. However, the significant delay denied Mr X’s right of appeal and caused unnecessary distress and uncertainty. I have therefore made a further recommendation to remedy that injustice.
17. This decision does not include any service improvements. The Council has already implemented a new management system which will prevent delays such as this occurring in the future. We will monitor this in our casework should we receive similar complaints going forward.

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Action

18. Within one month of the final decision the Council agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £150 to recognise the distress, uncertainty and frustration caused by the delays and lack of appeal rights. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council will consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended.
19. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

20. I find fault causing injustice due to delays in completing a housing benefit review.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman