Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to conduct annual reviews of her adoption allowance between 2006 and 2011. The complaint is very late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to conduct annual reviews of her adoption allowance between 2006 and 2011. She says this caused her a significant financial loss.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X complains about fault by the Council between 15 and 20 years ago. Mrs X complained to the Council about this in 2015. She then pursued a claim in the courts between 2015 and 2019. Mrs X says the court did not decide all the issues she wishes to complain about here.
8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person affected first becoming aware of the matter. I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now. Mrs X was clearly aware of the matter many years ago and the complaint could have been made to us much sooner. In addition to this, it is unlikely the issues raised are clearly separable from the matters considered in court. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court proceedings or which are not clearly separable from the proceedings.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman