Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council refusing to backdate Mr X’s housing application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council lost his original housing application made in 2009, refused to backdate his current application, failed to acknowledge his medical issues and has had poor communication with him.
2. Mr X would like his housing application back dated.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X says he made his original housing application in 2009 but the Council has no record of him before 2015.
9. The Council said it closed his original application in 2021 as Mr X did not complete the annual renewal process. He submitted a new application in April 2023 but this was cancelled as he did not provide the correct documentation.
10. Without an active registration, the Council cannot consider a discretionary decision to backdate Mr X’s waiting time.
11. 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. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made. I have seen no evidence of fault which would suggest that the Council did not properly consider Mr X’s complaint.
12. The complaint about issues arising before 2024 are late and we will not exercise discretion to investigate now. We see no reason why the complaint could not have been made at the time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman