London Borough of Lewisham (25 026 811)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about housing benefit overpayments. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for this. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s more recent actions
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council is unfairly pursuing recovery of housing benefit overpayments from 2008 to 2014. She says the Council failed to properly determine if the overpayments were recoverable, did not maintain records of deductions and repayments, did not take account of tribunal findings that she says found the overpayments did not exist, and mischaracterised her complaints as appeals. The Council is now seeking to make deductions from her pay which will cause significant hardship.
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)
- 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)).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complained to the Council regarding the matters in paragraph 1.
- The Council replied that the overpayments were correctly raised and remained recoverable. It said that opportunities to appeal had expired. It had made deductions towards the overpayment from her housing benefit for a number of years. It said that it had contacted Ms X in October 2025 asking her to contact it. As she did not contact the Council it wrote to Ms X’s employer regarding a direct earnings attachment. The Council said it could consider whether she was in hardship if she completed a financial questionnaire.
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons for this. It relates to a matter she was aware of more than 12 months before her complaint to the Ombudsman. It was reasonable to expect her to complain at the time.
- There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation into the Council’s actions from October 2025 to apply a direct earnings attachment.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s more recent actions to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman