Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Housing Benefit overpayment. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. X complains the Council is at fault for pursuing them for a debt which they say is historical. X says the Council should not have allowed them to accrue a large debt because it had access to their family’s earning through PAYE systems. X wants the debt to be written off.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

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

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My assessment

4. X complained the Council was at fault because it allowed them to accrue a large Housing Benefit overpayment. X said this was because it already had access to their family’s earnings. X said they were unable to get access to their online account since 2019 and so were unable to properly engage with the decisions at the time.
5. The Council replied to X’s complaint, setting out the contact it had with X in 2017 and 2018 over this matter. Noting the Council’s reply and X’s comments about the difficulties they had in 2019, a complaint about the Council’s actions is now late. X did not raise a complaint to us until July 2026. There are no good reasons why a complaint could not have been made to us sooner about these decisions.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman