Birmingham City Council (20 012 683)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Mar 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about delay by the Council in recovering an overpayment of housing benefit. We will not investigate this complaint because the matter is out of time, he had a right of appeal to a tribunal and the matter has been remedied.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about delay by the Council in recovering an overpayment of housing benefit.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- The Social Entitlement Chamber (also known as the Social Security Appeal Tribunal) is a tribunal that considers housing benefit appeals. (The Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal)
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant was given an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.
What I found
- Mr X says that he told the Council in December 2012 that he started work and this would affect his housing benefit entitlement.
- The Council says that three overpayments of housing benefit were identified between 2012 and 2013 and Mr X was told of this in 2013. Mr X complained but the Council rebutted his complaint.
- The Council wrote to Mr X again in 2017 to confirm the debt was correct but no action was taken until 2020 when the Council decided to recover the debt though an Attachment of Earnings Order.
- The housing benefit has now been recovered apart from £481 which the Council has written off.
- Mr X could reasonably have made a complaint to this office in 2014 and again in 2017 so I consider this complaint is out of time. Further, he had a right of appeal to a tribunal to dispute the recovery. The Council also wrote off a significant amount which would remedy (in our opinion) any injustice caused to Mr X by the delay. For these reasons the Ombudsman would not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because the matter is out of time, there was a right of appeal to a tribunal and the matter has been remedied to the Ombudsman’s satisfaction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman