Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with X’s homelessness application. This is because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by doing so.

The complaint

1. X complains about the Council’s decision that they were not homeless. X says they had to go to the trouble of seeking a review of the decision to get it overturned, which caused X distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council decided that X was not homeless. X requested a review of this decision and the decision was overturned.
6. Whilst I note that X found the process frustrating, there is nothing to be achieved by investigating this now as the matter has already been considered and the outcome X wanted was achieved. Where we are unlikely to achieve a worthwhile outcome, we do not investigate.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman