The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a housing benefit overpayment. Mr X has appealed to the Tribunal and the law does not allow us to investigate where an appeal right has been used.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council has wrongly decided that he had been overpaid housing benefit and ordered repayment.
Mr X also complained about the attitude of a Council officer when he contacted it to discuss the matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), 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).
The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has appealed to Tribunal. We will also not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the attitude of the Council officer who he dealt with. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman