Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on Mr X’s housing benefit. This is because Mr X has started court action.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council:
• Wrongly applied the bedroom tax to his housing benefit account from 2015 to 2025;
• Communicated poorly with him, including failures to safeguard him, failures to make reasonable adjustments and poor complaint handling in relation to the above;
• Refused three discretionary housing payment applications;
• Shared his email address with over 100 people in breach of data protection law and;
• Handled his data poorly in relation to his housing benefit account.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
3. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
4. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
5. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

6. 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

7. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaints about the Council’s decision on his housing benefit and its related communications. This is because Mr X has started court action on these matters.
10. It is not proportionate to investigate Mr X’s complaints about discretionary housing payments (“DHPs”) and other discrete matters, when we cannot investigate the majority of his complaint. Further, Mr X’s complaint about DHPs is out on time and there is no good reason to exercise discretion. The Council addressed Mr X’s complaint in 2023. Mr X could have contacted us then or asked someone else to contact us if he was unable to do so.
11. In 2023 the Council apologised for breaching Mr X’s personal data. It considered the risk to him minimal given his email was shared with tenancy group members known to him. Investigation by us would not achieve a different outcome. Further, this complaint is out on time and there is no good reason to exercise discretion. Mr X could have contacted us in 2023 or asked someone else to contact us if he was unable to do so.
12. Mr X’s remaining complaints about the Council’s breaches of data protection law are better dealt with by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Therefore, I will not investigate these complaints.

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Final decision

13. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has started court action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman