London Borough of Barnet (25 028 067)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council handled his application for a Discretionary Housing Payment. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council refused his application for a Discretionary Housing Payment. He also complains about complaint handling.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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), section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X applied for a Discretionary Housing payment. The Council refused his application. Mr X appealed and the Council upheld its original decision.
- Mr X complained. The Council explained it had considered the information in his application and asked for more information because there were discrepancies. Mr X did not provide the information requested by the Council.
- 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.
- I will not investigate this complaint. In making its decision, the Council 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.
- 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))
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman