Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her homelessness review. It was reasonable for her to use her right of appeal to the County Court.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her homelessness review. She says the Council failed to properly consider her current circumstances or her updated homelessness application. She also says there were delays in completing the review and the Council ignored evidence she provided.
2. Miss X says the failings in the assessment led to inappropriate conclusions. She wants an investigation into the Council’s failures, for the Council to take remedial action and to ensure its staff are appropriately trained.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. The County Court deals with appeals about homelessness decisions.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Miss X.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. I acknowledge there was some delay in the Council completing Miss X’s homelessness review. While I acknowledge this, I do not consider the length of the delay to have caused a significant enough injustice to Miss X to justify us investigating.
10. The Council's review decision carried a right of appeal to the County Court on a point of law. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body and cannot overturn or change decisions. If Miss X considered the review decision was wrong, it was reasonable for her to use her right of appeal to the County Court. I have seen no evidence to suggest it was unreasonable for her to appeal. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because any delay in the Council completing the review has not caused her a significant injustice and because it was reasonable for her to use her right of appeal to the County Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman