The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council refusing to issue a proper decision on Mr X’s homeless application in 2021. This complaint is late and there is no good reason Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council failed in its duties to him when he was homeless in 2021. He says the Council failed to accept a duty or issue him with proper decisions so he could use his right of review.
He also complains that the Council refused to accept his complaint because it was late.
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 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. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complains about matters from 2021. This is more than 12 months before he complained to us and this complaint is therefore late. There are no good reasons Mr X could not have complained to us sooner and so we will not investigate.
The Council rejected Mr X’s complaint as late. We will not investigate this part of the complaint. The Council’s complaint policy says it will not usually accept complaints about things that happened more than 12 months before. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision to justify investigating.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman