Summary: A woman complained the Council had not properly credited payments to accounts she holds with it. But we will not investigate this matter as there is no sign of any fault by the Council which has caused the woman a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Miss B, complained about the way the Council dealt with payments it owed her. In particular, Miss B complained the Council:

• had not paid compensation we recommended following a previous complaint she made to us;
• had not made overlapping payments of Housing Benefit (HB) it promised to make when she moved from one property to another; and
• credited payments in her case to the wrong accounts, which resulted in her being unreasonably blocked from bidding for accommodation through its housing register.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Miss B provided with her complaint and her comments when we spoke on the telephone. I also gave Miss B an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision before I reached a final view. In addition I took account of the Council’s responses to my enquiries in Miss B’s case.

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What I found

4. Miss B lives in temporary accommodation the Council has provided to her under a homelessness duty.
5. Miss B complained to us previously about an incident relating to her former temporary accommodation. As a result of this complaint we recommended the Council should award Miss B some compensation. The Council subsequently confirmed it had provided the recommended remedy by way of a credit to a rent account for Miss B’s former temporary accommodation, which was still in arrears.
6. Miss B complained again last year on the basis the Council not provided proof it had made the credit to her rent account. But I will not consider this part of her complaint. This is because we do not re-investigate matters we have already dealt with satisfactorily in a previous investigation.
7. The Council has already supplied evidence of the credit to Miss B’s former rent account, and she has not provided any new information to suggest our previous conclusions about this matter were incorrect. As a result I consider this part of her complaint is invalid.

Overlapping HB payment

8. In 2019 the Council asked Miss B to move from one temporary accommodation to another. Because of issues with the move Miss B ended up being liable for rent on both properties for a period.
9. The Council decided at first that there had been an overpayment of HB as it had continued to pay HB for Miss B’s first property after she had moved out. The Council did not take back the overpayment from Miss B’s rent account but charged this to her in a separate overpayment account.
10. However the Council subsequently decided to make overlapping HB payments to cover both rents. As a result it made a further credit to Miss B’s rent account for the first property. The Council also went on to process and pay HB covering Miss B’s rent for the second property from the day she moved in.
11. The Council has provided an explanation of its payments along with copies of Miss B’s rent accounts for both properties. Based on this information I see no reason to doubt that the Council has made the overlapping HB payments.
12. Miss B also complained the Council had made the payment in respect of the second property to the wrong account. In particular she felt the Council should have credited the payment against the outstanding debt in her overpayment account. However the Council said it had to make the payment to Miss B’s former rent account as this was in arrears.
13. I am not convinced we could say the Council was at fault for choosing to credit the payment in this way. But in any case, I do not see that Miss B has been disadvantaged as a result. In particular the total amount of debt she owed the Council would still have been the same whichever account the Council credited the HB payment to.
14. Miss B is currently suspended from bidding for a property through the Council’s housing register. Miss B believes the suspension is due to her debts with the Council and is only in place because of the way it has allocated the payments to her accounts.
15. However the Council said Miss B’s most recent housing register application is incomplete and she needs to log in to her account to finish the application process. The Council said this is the reason Miss B is currently suspended from bidding. In the circumstances I do not see that the way the Council has dealt with the overlapping HB payments in Miss B’s case is the cause of her suspension from bidding.

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Final decision

16. We do not have reason to investigate Miss B’s complaint that the Council has not properly credited certain payments to accounts she holds with it. This is because there is no sign that fault by the Council in this respect has caused Miss B an injustice which warrants our involvement in her case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman