North Devon District Council (19 021 236)

Statement Upheld Housing benefit and council tax benefit 22-Feb-2021

Summary: Miss B complained the Council wrongly told her she would be able to claim housing benefit when she moved to North Devon. Miss B said she could not claim housing benefit when she moved, and this put her in financial difficulty. The Council was at fault for implementing the Amendment of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 in June 2018 before the ruling came into effect in January 2019. The Council incorrectly told Miss B her benefits would be unaffected if she moved and wrongly paid her housing benefit. This caused injustice to Miss B. The Council agreed to make a financial payment to Miss B to acknowledge the impact of its fault.

North Devon District Council (20 005 183)

Statement Upheld Noise 03-Mar-2021

Summary: The Council was at fault for the severe delay in responding to this complaint, and it has agreed to write a formal letter of apology to complainant for this. However, we cannot find fault on the substantive matters in the complaint, because they are too old or too speculative for the Ombudsman to investigate.