Summary: Miss W complained on behalf of her mother Mrs V about how the Council acted and communicated when it suspended her housing benefit, causing them both significant distress. We found fault in how the Council handled the matter and it agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and review its procedure.

The complaint

1. Miss W complains on behalf of her mother Mrs V about how the Council acted when it suspended her housing benefit. She complains the Council:

• Suspended the housing benefit for an unnecessarily long period.
• Had poor communication with her when she tried to resolve the issue on behalf of her mother.

2. Miss W says the Council caused her and her mother significant anxiety and distress. She would like the Council to change the way it communicates by providing timely responses, explain complex terminology, and to take cognitive disabilities, from which her mother suffers, into account.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have not investigated the Council’s decisions to terminate Mrs V’s housing benefit, or its decision to recover overpayments it thinks it made to Mrs V. This is because these decisions can be appealed to a tribunal and it is reasonable to expect Mrs V to have done this.
7. I have investigated the how the Council handled its suspension Mrs V’s housing benefit because this cannot be appealed to a tribunal.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information Miss W provided and spoke to her about her complaint.
9. I considered the Council’s documents.
10. Miss W and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Housing benefit

11. The Council manages and pays Housing Benefit which helps eligible people on low incomes pay their rent. Regulations set out the rules councils must follow for calculating and paying Housing Benefit.
12. If someone disagrees with a housing benefit decision they can ask the council for a review. If they have a review, and are not happy with the decision, they can then appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong. Because the person can appeal, we would normally decide not to investigate complaints about these decisions.
13. If a council pays too much housing benefit to someone, it will usually ask them to repay it. The law says the council can get this money back unless it was caused by the council’s mistakes and it was not reasonable to expect the person to realise they were receiving too much benefit.
14. If someone disagrees with a decision about an overpayment they can appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong. The tribunal can accept a late appeal up to 13 months from the date of the decision. Because the person can appeal, we would normally decide not to investigate complaints about these decisions.
15. If someone has their housing benefit suspended by a council, they cannot appeal that decision to the tribunal. Because the person cannot appeal, we can decide to investigate complaints about these decisions. We might find a council at fault if it unnecessarily extended a suspension.

What happened

16. On 20 June 2023 the Council suspended Mrs V’s housing benefit because it had identified a change of circumstances from 2021. The Council asked her for information about her household and a different benefit.
17. In July the Council granted Miss W authority to act on behalf of her mother. She told the Council Mrs V had suffered from mental impairments including memory loss due to a brain injury. Miss W was a full-time university student who lived away from her mother.
18. Mrs V’s rent arrears, owed to the same Council, began to rapidly increase. Miss W spoke to the Council later in July and in August. She provided the Council the information it had asked for.
19. In September the Council warned Mrs V about her rent arrears. It said it would soon take action due to the increasing money she owed. Miss W continued to contact the Council to try to resolve the matter and said she had received no reply to emails she sent in August about the housing benefit. She contacted the Council several times. The Council said it was working on Mrs V’s case.
20. In October the Council requested new information from Miss W about the household composition. She provided the information in November. The Council told her it was undergoing system upgrades on its benefits system so it could not assess the information for at least six weeks. It said it would write to her once it had assessed the information.
21. Miss W said the Council did not write to her after six weeks.
22. By April 2024 the Council had not lifted the suspension on Mrs V’s housing benefit so her rent arrears were still increasing. The Council contacted Mrs V and told her it was applying a significant increase on the direct debit to reclaim the arrears. Miss W said the financial impact would be unaffordable. She contacted the Council. It told her it did not know why the benefit was still suspended, but it was being worked on.
23. In May the Council requested more information from Miss W. It gave a deadline of 23 June. However it decided to terminate Mrs V’s housing benefit on 7 June, before the deadline was up. It told Mrs V she could appeal the suspension.
24. On 25 June Miss W complained to the Council. It responded on 2 July. It acknowledged a delay of approximately one month in 2023 for which it apologised. It acknowledged the decision to terminate the claim was made before the deadline, and that “the level of suspension far exceeded the permitted”. It did not apologise for those points. It did not explain why the suspension lasted so long or why it had terminated the claim. It said there was a right of appeal.
25. On 9 July Miss W escalated her complaint to stage two of the complaint procedure. It responded on 18 July. The Council upheld Miss W’s complaint. It overturned its decision of 7 June to terminate Mrs V’s housing benefit. It sent her a notice awarding her housing benefit from June 2023, when it had first suspended her benefit. The Council did not apologise.
26. In its stage two complaint response the Council said it had decided to revise Mrs V’s benefit entitlement back to 2021. It said it had identified overpayments of approximately £5,000 which she now owed. It said she could appeal if she disputed the overpayments. .
27. I have not investigated matters beyond this point. However, Miss W has told me she has been in touch with a specific officer from the Council who has provided ongoing explanations and assistance regarding the issues.

Findings

28. The Council kept Mrs V’s housing benefit suspended for approximately one year, during which time it made three different requests for information. Miss W provided the requested information the first two times and raised concerns. The evidence I have seen demonstrates the Council did not provide Miss W timely or clear responses. This is fault.
29. The Council knew its benefit systems was being updated which would cause a delay of approximately eight weeks after it made its second request for information. Whilst the system upgrade was out of its control, the Council could have could have considered the impact of the delay. In any event, it failed to respond after six weeks as it said it would. This is fault.
30. The Council did not give Miss W a proper opportunity to provide information on the third occasion, because it decided to terminate Mrs V’s housing benefit before the deadline. I have not seen a good reason why the Council made this decision and note that the Council later accepted this should not have happened.
31. The Council was aware of Mrs V’s mental impairment and that she therefore may be vulnerable and require reasonable adjustments. Although it agreed to correspond with Miss W, it also sent separate linked correspondence direct to Mrs V. I have seen no evidence the Council considered whether to make reasonable adjustments for Mrs V, which is fault.
32. In its complaint response of 2 July, the Council accepted that the level of suspension far exceeded the permitted time but it only apologised for a narrow one-month period of delay in 2023. It did not offer an apology or remedy for the way it handled the suspension of Mrs V’s housing benefit.
33. In its complaint response of 9 July the Council upheld Miss W’s complaint, reversed its decision to terminate the benefit, and issued an award notice dated from the date of suspension. However, it again failed to apologise.
34. The Council knew Mrs V had no right of appeal regarding the suspension. It also knew its decision to prolong the suspension was causing Mrs V to accrue substantial rent arrears because at the same time it was significantly increasing her direct debit rent payments. Miss W told the Council the distress this caused but its complaint responses did not sufficiently remedy this.
35. I find the Council at fault for suspending Mrs V’s housing benefit for too long and not providing timely clear communication to Miss W in her attempts to resolve the matter. This has caused injustice to Mrs V and Miss W in the form of distress, significant anxiety and frustration.
36. I also find the Council at fault for poor complaint handling. The Council’s first complaint response only apologised for a narrow point, and its second response did not apologise despite upholding the complaint. Feedback from complainants, including our advisory forum of former complainants and representatives, stresses the importance and power of an effective apology. This has caused injustice Mrs V and Miss W in the form of distress and frustration.

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Agreed Actions

37. Within four weeks of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Mrs V and Miss W for the injustice caused. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Make a symbolic payment of £300, comprised of £150 each to Mrs V and Miss W, for the injustice, that took the form of distress, anxiety and frustration.

38. Within eight weeks of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:

• Review its approach to suspending housing benefits to ensure it has an updated written procedure. This should be informed by the findings of this investigation and include, but not be limited to, clear guidance on the duration of suspension, any triggers that should cause the suspension to be lifted (for example identified claimant vulnerability and predictable delays in assessing information), and regular recorded manager reviews of suspensions. The Council will share the procedure and this complaint with relevant Council officers that may be involved in housing benefits decisions, and complaint handling.
• Remind all officers in the relevant service areas of the duty to make reasonable adjustments when people with disabilities access services. We have published a focus report titled “Equal Access: Getting it right for people with disabilities” that contains learning points to help councils reflect on and improve their services for people with disabilities.

39. The Council has agreed to provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

40. There was fault by the Council. The actions the Council has agreed to take remedy the injustice caused. I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman