Luton council ordered to apologise and pay £200 after wrongly stopping woman's benefit claim

A Bedfordshire woman says she suffered stress and financial problems after Luton Borough Council incorrectly ended her benefit claim, using wrong calculations.

She complained about how the local authority dealt with housing benefit and council tax reduction claims, which “amount to fault causing her an injustice”, according to the local government and social care ombudsman.

Her complaint included delay and changes of position by LBC, said the ombudsman. “She says LBC threatened to end her tenancy and take recovery action because of rent arrears.

“The council wrote to her In September 2020 advising it had reviewed her housing benefit and council tax awards based on information received from the Department for Work and Pensions.

“This increased the amount she owed in council tax and reduced the amount she’d receive in housing benefit.

“Her husband wrote to LBC questioning this and asked it to reconsider its decision. He confirmed their income hadn’t increased and the family were struggling financially.

“LBC reviewed the awards and advised her it overpaid housing benefit by £1.63 which it would recover, while confirming the council tax balance had increased.

“It explained this was because two of their children were no longer entitled to child benefit. He challenged this information.”

The council reviewed her awards in November 2020 and confirmed she was underpaid £57 in housing benefit and £106.06 in council tax reduction.

“Her husband requested another review, claiming the council’s calculations were wrong as they used incorrect figures for his earnings,” explained the ombudsman.

“LBC wrote to her again in May 2021 upholding its original decision in September 2020, confirming she was overpaid £499.57 in housing benefit and wasn’t entitled to that from March 29th 2021.

“Her husband wrote to LBC in June 2021 appealing both decisions. The couple appealed to the valuation tribunal service over their council tax reduction claim, with a hearing arranged for April 2022.

“LBC said the initial delay over the review request was because it was indexed incorrectly and then placed in the wrong tray.

“The local authority states the delay in submitting the housing benefit appeal to the tribunal was because of officer workload, clarification issues and staff being moved to other areas.”

On February 11, 2022, the council revised its decision of May 2021. “It wrote saying it had underpaid her £448.33 in housing benefit from May 4, 2020 to March 29, 2021 and £131.22 in council tax reduction,” added the ombudsman.

“A second letter in February 2022 confirmed LBC had underpaid £266.01 in housing benefit from June 7, 2021 to October 4, 2021.

“It’s clear from the documentation there were significant delays in dealing with the requests to reconsider both claims. We would generally expect councils to review decisions within four weeks.

“There was a further delay in reconsidering the decision in April and May 2021. LBC didn’t refer her appeal to the tribunal service and only notified her of the revised decision in her favour in February 2022.

“Delays of this nature are clearly unacceptable and amount to fault. This caused her unnecessary worry and stress, while adding to her financial difficulties. LBC has agreed to apologise and pay her £200.”