Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to provide assistance when he was homeless and unemployed in 2020-2021. The complaints are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction because they are considered late complaints. We have not exercised discretion to consider these late complaints because Mr X has not provided evidence to show it was not possible for him to have complained sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to provide assistance when he was homeless and unemployed in 2020-2021.
2. Mr X says that he was denied financial and practical assistance causing him distress and financial hardship.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
6. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mr X, a representative he asked me to speak with and the Council, as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I consider their comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

9. This section sets out the key events in this case and is not intended to be a detailed chronology.
10. Mr X says that he was threatened with homelessness towards the end of 2019 as he was unable to pay rent. He was not served with any notice to quit but he did surrender the tenancy to prevent any rent arrears increasing. Mr X told me that he was then provided with somewhere to stay by friends on a goodwill basis.
11. At a later date, Mr X went to the Council to seek advice about what support was available. Mr X was not clear when we spoke whether he made a formal presentation to the Council as a homeless person. He says the Council mentioned an application for a support fund which would pay around £3,000 and that he made an application but no assistance was provided.
12. Mr X’s living arrangements were formalised in the middle of 2021 and a commercial rental arrangement was put in place. Mr X applied for housing benefit in January 2022 but his claim was denied on the basis that it was not a commercial arrangement. Mr X appealed this decision and in September 2023 a tribunal determined that he was entitled to housing benefit and a backdated payment was made.
13. Mr X says that because his applications were usurped or ousted, he missed out on social inclusion payments operated by the Council and other social care needs services. He says that it is his understanding that he should have received a statutory homeless payment of £30 per day as well as a grant payment of £3,000 from the Council’s social inclusion fund. He says that he applied for this grant but his application was not properly processed.

Analysis

14. There are certain restrictions on the matters the Ombudsman is able to investigate. The 1974 Local Government Act says the Ombudsman will not normally investigate a late complaint unless there are good reasons to do so. A late complaint, according to the 1974 Act, is one made more than 12 months after the person was first aware that something had happened which affected them.
15. Mr X says he became homeless in January 2020 but cannot remember exactly when he approached the Council for assistance. However, it must have been sometime before the middle of 2021 as this is when he says he was liable to pay rent and so was not homeless or threatened with homelessness from that date.
16. Mr X has provided a screenshot regarding an application for the resident support fund. The information provided indicates an application was started and the form was saved. There is no way of knowing from the information provided whether the form was actually submitted. Mr X told me the Council never provided any decision on this application and no payment was made. The screenshot indicates the form was saved on 18 January 2022.
17. Based on the information provided so far, I consider Mr X was aware from January 2020 that he was homeless and required assistance. However, he did not submit this complaint to the Ombudsman until February 2025. Therefore, I am satisfied this is a late complaint. Mr X made his application for the resident support fund around January 2022 and again did not complain to the Ombudsman about this until February 2025 and so this is also a late complaint.
18. The Ombudsman has discretion to consider late complaints if there are good reasons why the person did not complain sooner. I am aware that Mr X was dealing with appeals regarding the refusal of housing benefit and state pension credit and believes these needed to be resolved before complaining to the Ombudsman. However, Mr X made a previous complaint to the Ombudsman in March 2023.
19. We issued a decision on that complaint on 17 August 2023. While we have not retained all the documents in respect of that investigation, the decision letter indicates Mr X made comments in respect of a draft decision on that complaint which included the failure to assist with his homelessness. We advised Mr X to raise this complaint with the Council first, if he had not already done so and that he could complain to the Ombudsman if he was unhappy with the outcome.
20. I have seen documents which show Mr X contacted the Council in September 2023 about the lack of support during the period he was homeless. The Council responded saying it had no records to indicate Mr X had made an application regarding homelessness and invited him to provide further details so it could investigate further. He sent a further email to the Council explaining the circumstances and requesting missing payments in November 2023. It appears the Council closed the matter as no further evidence of an application was submitted by Mr X. It is not clear if the Council wrote to Mr X to explain this. However, Mr X did not make further contact with the Ombudsman for another 14 months.
21. By the end of 2023, both of the outstanding appeals had been determined and upheld. Mr X had raised issues regarding the payments he considered he was due during the period of homelessness and the Council had not provided a positive response. Mr X had been in contact with the Ombudsman about these issues and advice given about how to pursue them. However, Mr X waited another 14 months before contacting the Ombudsman to make his complaint.

Back to top

Decision

22. For the reasons set out above, I am not persuaded there are continuous good reasons why Mr X did not make this complaint to the Ombudsman within 12 months of first becoming aware that something had happened which affected him. Therefore, his complaint falls outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and will not be pursued further.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman