London Borough of Croydon (25 013 186)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Apr 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to use her overpayment to settle her arrears. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons why she could not complain sooner.
The complaint
- Ms X says the Council told her she would receive a repayment but then used the amount to settle arrears for her previous property. She says she did not know about these arrears and this decision has impacted her mental health. She wants the Council to pay her the full original repayment amount.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council told Ms X she would not be receiving the repayment in January 2024.
- Ms X made a formal complaint, and the Council issued its final response on 22 February 2024. It explained the details of the arrears and did not uphold the complaint.
- Ms X brought the complaint to the Ombudsman on 24 November 2025 This was 22 months after she knew of the Council’s decision not to pay money to her, but to use it against arrears.
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for this. Ms X has explained why she could not pursue her complaint between April and September 2024, but these are not good reasons as she had a professional representative helping her. Ms X has given no reasons why she could not pursue her complaint between September 2024 and November 2025.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons for this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman