Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to award him a discretionary housing payment. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s decision not to award him a discretionary housing payment. He says the decision was biased. He also complains about complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X decided to move to a different council area. He applied for a discretionary housing payment to cover the deposit and first month’s rent in his new home.
6. The Council refused Mr X’s application. Mr X complained. The Council considered his complaint as an appeal and upheld its decision. It said it would support Mr X if he was moving to reduce rent costs, but as he was not, his application did not meet the scheme’s criteria.
7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision.
8. I will not investigate this complaint. In making its decision, the Council has acted in line with its policy. Based on the evidence I have seen, the Council followed the correct procedures when making this decision. Therefore, I cannot criticise it.
9. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman